Abstract:

Mother-baby attachment is a process that starts from the pregnancy period and continues in the birth and postpartum period. Nurses working in the field of women’s health and midwives have important roles and responsibilities in supporting prenatal attachment. In this review, it is aimed to present the measurement tools, influencing factors and supporting evidence-based applications that evaluate prenatal attachment in the light of literature. As a result of the literature review; “Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale”, “Prenatal Attachment Inventory”, “Maternal Prenatal Attachment Scale” and “Prenatal Attachment Scale”, which evaluated mother-infant attachment in pregnant women and whose validity and reliability were made in Turkish, were reached. In these studies, it was revealed that many individual and environmental factors of the pregnant woman affected prenatal attachment. In experimental studies available, it was shown that fetal movement count, leopold maneuver practice, pregnancy training and counseling, father training, birth preparation training, relaxation exercise and guided imagery, cognitive behavioral therapies, yoga and meditation practices support prenatal attachment, while listening to music does not affect it. Nurses are recommended to provide training and counseling to pregnant women with low prenatal attachment risk on these cheap and non-invasive practices, and to support the pregnant woman to use the most appropriate method for her. In addition, it was found that studies testing the effectiveness of evidence-based practices in prenatal attachment are limited in our country and more randomized controlled studies are needed.

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