Further exploration of maternal and paternal fetal attachment.

Abstract

Fetal attachment of four groups of expectant parents were studied during the 24th to 34th weeks of pregnancy: 153 high-risk women hospitalized for a complication, 75 high-risk women's mates, 218 low-risk women, and 147 low-risk women's mates. No differences in fetal attachment scores were observed between high- or low-risk women or their mates; women scored significantly higher than their mates. Very little variance (7% to 14%) in fetal attachment was explained by the test of causal models except for high-risk women's mates for whom 31% of the variance was explained.