Abstract
Objective
To investigate the association between the magnitude of foetal movements and level
of prenatal attachment within a 24 h period among women in the third trimester of pregnancy.
Design
a prospective population-based survey.
Setting
A county in central Sweden.
Participants
Low risk pregnant women from 34 to 42 weeks gestation, N = 456, 299 multiparous and 157 primiparous women.
Measurements
The revised version of the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (PAI-R) and assessment of
the perception of foetal movements per 24 h in the current gestational week.
Findings
A total of 81 per cent of the eligible women completed the questionnaire. The overall
sample of women found that the majority (96%) felt their baby move mostly in the evening.
More than half of the respondents (55%) stated that they perceived frequent foetal
movement on two occasions during a 24 h period, while almost a fifth (18%) never or only once reported frequent foetal movement
in a 24 h period. Just over a quarter (26%) of respondents perceived frequent movement at
least three times during a 24 h period. Perceiving frequent foetal movements on three or more occasions during a
24 h period, was associated with higher scores of prenatal attachment in all the three
subscales. Key conclusion: Perceiving frequent foetal movements at least during three
occasions per 24 h periods in late pregnancy was associated with prenatal attachment. Implications
for practice: encouraging women to focus on foetal movements may positively affect
prenatal attachment, especially among multiparous women >35 years.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 29, 2016
Accepted:
April 2,
2016
Received in revised form:
April 1,
2016
Received:
October 23,
2015
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Australian College of Midwives.
