Prenatal Attachment and Postnatal Infant Sleep

This study examined the relationship between maternal prenatal
attachment and postnatal infant sleep. Ninety first-time pregnant mothers, between 35
and 40 gestational weeks, completed the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (Müller,
1989), which consists of 21 items and assesses the mother’s prenatal attachment to her
fetus. After the birth of their infant, the mothers charted their infant’s sleep for three
consecutive 24-hour periods when the infant was 1 week and 3 months old, using the
Sleep/Activity Record (Barnard, 1999). Correlational analysis revealed that PAI scores
did not correlate with either infant sleep segments or longest sustained sleep. However,
the study found an inverted correlation between PAI scores and infant total sleep at
one week. The study extends current literature on prenatal to postnatal continuity.
KEYWORDS: Infant Sleep, Pregnancy, Prenatal Attachment