Maternal-infant attachment and postpartum adaptation to motherhood

Abstract

The purposes of this descriptive research were to examine the level of maternal-infant attachment in the postpartum period of adolescent mothers and the level of postpartum adaptation to motherhood of adolescent mothers. The samples were the first time adolescent mothers who gave birth and recovered in the postpartum unit, Hatyai hospital from November 2007 to August 2008 (n = 100). The instruments consisted of demographic data, the measurement of attachment between adolescent mothers and their infants, and the measurement of adaptation to motherhood of adolescent mothers. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis. The results showed that first-time adolescent mothers in postpartum period had a high level of the maternal-infant attachment X = 4.33 and a high level of adaptation to motherhood X = 4.00 while they were staying in a hospital. An additional finding showed that the attachment between adolescent mothers and their infants had a significant correlation with the adaptation to mother-hood of adolescent mothers (r=0.70).

Keywords

• adolescent mothers
• maternal-infant attachment
• postpartum adaptation to motherhood