Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in At-Risk Pregnancy: Influence on Maternal-Fetal Attachment in Tunisia.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate maternal prenatal anxiety and depression in high-risk pregnancies and examine their influence on maternal-fetal attachment.

METHODS

We included 95 hospitalized high-risk pregnant women. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (PAI) were used to assess the primary objective. Internal consistency and construct validity of the PAI were investigated.

RESULTS

The average age was 31 years and gestational age ranged from 26 to 41 weeks. Prevalence of depressive symptoms was 20% and anxiety symptoms 39%. Cronbach alpha coefficient of the PAI Tunisian version was 0.8 and the construct validity in favour of one factor model. PAI scores correlated negatively and significatively with the HADS total score (r = - 0.218, p = 0.034) and was attributed to the depression dimension only (r = - 0.205, p = 0.046).

CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: Emotional wellbeing of pregnant women especially in high-risk pregnancies should be explored in order to prevent consequences on women, their growing fetus, and prenatal attachment.