Development of the Maternal Bond during Pregnancy

Overview

Formation of the maternal bond during pregnancy is an area of scientific interest explored very little so far.The interaction between mother and child during pregnancy is conceived with increasing frequency as a peculiarprocess of learning where the infant starts to develop his genetic predispositions. In this way it is possible to influ -ence the further development of the infant during the first few months after delivery. The presented paper summa-rizes selected results of an empirical study implemented in 1996 to 1998. The group comprised 481 pregnant wo-men with a permanent domicile in Brno. Within the framework of the project it proved possible to apply a pre-viously elaborated scale for the assessment of the maternal bond during pregnancy. From the results ensues thata strong maternal bond is present during the seventh month of pregnancy in some two-thirds of women. The in-vestigation was also concerned with cultural and situational factors which influence the formation of a strongbond to the child during pregnancy. It proved possible to test the effect of the style of the pregnant womans™ mot-her during her childhood, the amount of experienced stress, the level of social support and the influence of thepartner on the maternal bond of the pregnant women.

Key words:
maternal bond, maternal role, stress, social network, partner.