Multiparous and primiparous mothers partially differ in how they allocate maternal behaviour in captive western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)

Primiparous females gave birth around the same time as multiparous nonlactating females, and earlier than did multiparous lactating females. No differences in birth sex ratio were found between primiparous and multiparous females. During the breeding season following birth, primiparous mothers returned to oestrus later than did multiparous mothers, and while few primiparous mothers conceived successfully during that season, most multiparous mothers did. Primiparous females suckled their infants more frequently than did multiparous females at all ages; infants of primiparous females also made more nipple contacts per bout, and had shorter sucking bouts. When mothers came into oestrus, suckling frequency drastically increased for primiparous females, but not for multiparous females, magnifying the differences between the two groups. After the first oestrus, suckling frequency declined for all mothers, but multiparous mothers had consistently lower suckling frequencies than did primiparous mothers. The high suckling frequency, and numerous nipple contacts per bout, found among primiparous mothers are likely to be related to the low reproductive chances that these females faced during the breeding season. Multiparous mothers seemed to compensate for their low suckling frequency by lengthening the suckling bouts, and this suckling pattern did not hinder their reproduction. It is argued that primiparous mothers might have to suckle their infants more frequently because they can only produce milk at slow rates, being in this way forced into a reproductively inhibiting suckling pattern. However, the delay in subsequent reproduction could be ultimately advantageous for primiparous mothers if it enhanced infant survival, and allowed the mothers to regain physical condition before reproducing again.

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify the differences in factors related to childbirth satisfaction between primiparous mothers and multiparous mothers at a highly specialized university hospital. Methods: A correlational descriptive study was carried out at a highly specialized university hospital in south-east Spain. A total of 204 mothers, 110 primiparous mothers and 94 multiparous mothers, aged 16-43 years participated in the study. A modified version of The Women´s Views of Birth Labour Satisfaction Questionnaire (WOMBLSQ) was used. Women completed questionnaires during their hospital stays. Labour and birth data were collected from the medical records. Results: Factor analysis of the 27 item questionnaire yield seven factors accounting for a 64.8% and a 70.22 % of the variance respectively in primiparous and multiparous mothers. The seven domains obtained from major to minor importance in primiparous mothers were: professional support and general satisfaction, women´s expectations, pain in labour, being in control, holding baby was delayed and an impersonal and clinic environment, support from husband/partner and holding baby, pain after delivery. These factors accounted for 25.45, 9.93, 7.83, 6.55, 5.64, 4.95, 4.43% of the variance explained, respectively. In multiparous mothers, seven domains were obtained: women´s expectations and general satisfaction, professional support and being in control, pain in labour, holding baby, support from husband/partner, and pain after delivery and environment. These factors accounted for 29.71, 10.99, 7.87, 6.22, 5.98, 4.96, 4.50% of the variance explained, respectively. Conclusion: There were significant differences between primiparous and multiparous mothers in factors related to childbirth satisfaction. The most important factor in primiparous mothers was professional support, while, in multiparous mothers, it was women's expectations. Knowing the important differences in factors related to childbirth satisfaction between primiparous and multiparous mothers enables us to improve quality of service rendered and provide a better childbirth experience.

An important yet overlooked feature of prominent prevention programs serving expectant mothers is the exclusion of women with children. This study examines mothers (n = 3,260) participating in a program without parity exclusion criteria, and compares demographic characteristics, risk status, service use, and child maltreatment outcomes. A longitudinal, prospective study comparing primiparous (n = 1,890) and multiparous (n = 1,370) mothers participating in a nurse home visiting program. Patient groups are compared using bivariate and multivariate methods. Comparison by parity shows multiparous mothers had higher cumulative risk scores and individual risk factors related to maternal and child health, behavioral health, and violence exposure. Multiparous mothers were more likely to seek out services themselves and to initiate services later in the postnatal period. A significant trend exists among more children and greater caregiver stress, maternal depression, and child maltreatment. Multivariate models indicate infants of multiparous mothers have a higher risk (hazard ratio = 1.49) for later reports of child maltreatment. As compared with primiparous mothers, multiparous mothers were at higher risk but had similar levels of service use. Programs limited to primiparous mothers are missing a critical opportunity for prevention. Programs serving multiparous mothers should incorporate strategies to directly address caregiver stress and postpartum depression.

Eight primiparous rhesus monkey mothers were matched with 8 multiparous rhesus monkey mothers with regard to date of delivery and sex of infant. Each mother was housed and tested individually with her infant to preclude the compensating effects of peer experience. The test situation involved transporting each mother‐infant pair from the home cage to a test cage of similar size where the pair was visually exposed to a strange mother‐infant pair and human observers. The primiparous mothers looked at, threatened, fear grimaced, and lip‐smacked to these social stimuli significantly more frequently than did the multiparous females. In addition, the inexperienced mothers stroked or petted their infants significantly more frequently than the experienced mothers. The results support the idea that primiparous mothers are more “anxious” or concerned for their infants' welfare than are multiparous mothers.

Background/Aims Primiparous and multiparous mothers are likely to adapt differently to postpartum life. However, there is limited research comparing postpartum lifestyles between these populations. This study's aim was to address this gap by exploring postpartum lifestyle factors among women in Palembang City, Indonesia. Methods This comparative study assessed 209 postpartum mothers' (n=106 primiparous; n=103 multiparous) postpartum lifestyles, including their nutritional status, dietary patterns, sleep habits, physical activity, psychological distress and family support. Adjusted simple linear regression analysis was used to compare variables. Results Multiparous mothers showed significantly poorer dietary patterns (P<0.001) but better sleep habits (P<0.001) than primiparous mothers. Conclusions Multiparous mothers have unique postpartum lifestyle changes, including poorer diets but better sleep habits, compared to primiparous mothers. Targeted interventions are crucial for these mothers. Implications for practice Postpartum care should be tailored by parity, with nutritional support for multiparous mothers and sleep-focused interventions for primiparous mothers.

Traditionally, the child health services have laid emphasis on first-time mothers. Some researchers have argued that the needs of multiparous mothers must be considered equally important. The aim of this paper was to analyse parity-related characteristics in pairs of mothers and 18-month-old children. The study was population-based and cross-sectional. 586 primiparous mothers and 821 mothers with at least one previous child completed a questionnaire. Additional information was extracted from the child health records by the nurses. Data were collected in 2002-2003 and 2004-2005. Compared to multiparous mothers, primiparous mothers had a higher utilization of child health services. Multiparous mothers scored higher on parental incompetence stress and felt that their work load was more demanding. Multiparous mothers reported less social support, particularly in practical respects such as baby-sitting. They considered their interaction with the child as less satisfactory than did primiparous mothers; their children participated less in shared reading and had a more restricted vocabulary. Fewer multiparous mothers assessed their own and their child's total situation as very good. The child health services should develop competence and methods to support multiparous mothers and alleviate their workload when caring for several children.

BackgroundExclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is recommended for 6 months of age, with continued breastfeeding for 2 years of age or beyond. There is paucity of information on the disparity in Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) on EBF between primiparous and multiparous mothers. This study compared the KAP on EBF between primiparous and multiparous mothers attending Wajir County Hospital, Wajir County, Kenya and investigated the association between maternal knowledge and attitudes and EBF.MethodsInformation on maternal KAP on EBF was collected through structured researcher administered questionnaires for a total of 281 mothers, recruited from a maternal and child health centre in 2014; primiparous (n = 137) and multiparous (n = 144) with infants 0–5 months of age. Maternal knowledge and attitudes on various aspects of breastfeeding were determined. The knowledge and attitude scores were also calculated. The practice of EBF was determined based on a 24-h recall.ResultsThe prevalence of EBF among infants 0–5 months old was 45.5%. The rate of EBF among primiparous mothers was 39.4% and multiparous mothers 49.3%. The knowledge score on breastfeeding (out of a total of 10) for the primiparous mothers was 7.93 ± 2.10 and 7.49 ± 2.20 for the multiparous mothers. The mean attitude score (out of a total score of 40) for the primiparous mothers was 29.46 ± 5.65 and 28.65 ± 6.40 for the multiparous mothers. The prevalence of EBF and maternal knowledge and attitudes towards breastfeeding was similar among the two groups of mothers. Those mothers with positive attitudes towards breastfeeding were more likely to EBF (Fisher’s exact test; p = 0.00) compared with those with lower scores.ConclusionsInterventions to promote exclusive breastfeeding should be tailored to the needs of each population by identifying the factors that influence the practice in a given context. The findings of this study will be useful particularly for behavior change communication interventions by those organizations working in similar circumstances to the study area.

Becoming a mother is a very important process because of the impact it can have on women and their families. Currently, there is no validated questionnaire that evaluates the process of becoming a mother in the Spanish population. Moreover, no consistent results have been obtained to identify significant differences between primiparous and multiparous mothers. (1) Linguistic and metric validation of the Being a Mother scale (BaM-13) in the Spanish population, (2) analysis of possible differences between primiparous and multiparous mothers' experience of motherhood. Instrumental design. In 2016-2017, a sample of 579 mothers with children between 6 and 11 months of age completed the Spanish version of BaM-13. The instrument was translated using forward and back translation. Construct validity, internal consistency, and criterion validity were empirically analyzed. Factorial analyses showed that the scale presented two adequate factors. Internal consistency of the global scale (α=0.818, ω=0.861), the Postnatal bonding factor (α=0.773, ω=0.784), and the Adult's experience factor (α=0.710, ω=0.721) was adequate. Significant associations were found with postpartum depression (r=0.560), parental competence (r=-0.584) and postnatal bonding (r=-0.327). In terms of parity, primiparous mothers have greater difficulty in postnatal bonding, compared to multiparous mothers (p=0.006). The Spanish version of the BaM-13 scale is valid for measuring mothers' experience of motherhood in a wide range of domains. The findings of the study show the importance of considering parity in the experience of becoming a mother, highlighting the approach to postnatal bonding in primiparous mothers. Additionally, we underline that it should not be assumed that multiparous mothers experience fewer difficulties in their motherhood process.

Introduction: The UNICEF (United Nations International Children Education Fund) and WHO (World Health Organization) recommend exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for the first six months of life. EBF is considered to be an important practice for enhancing infant health and wellbeing. Breastfeeding offers a wide range of psychological and physical health benefits in the long-term and short-term for young children, infants, and mothers. This study aims to compare exclusive breastfeeding practice among primiparous and multiparous mothers including reasons for discontinuing exclusive breastfeeding and problems faced during breastfeeding.Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted in rural areas of Sindh, registered with the Maternal Newborn Health Registry (MNHR). The study used a systematic sampling technique for the enrollment of study participants. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from mothers about the practices of EBF. A total of 397 mothers were interviewed and analyzed.Results: Among Primiparous mothers, 14.1% of mothers initiated breastfeeding within one hour of birth, while 22.4% of multiparous mothers, initiated breastfeeding within one hour of birth. The difference between the two is statistically insignificant (p-value=0.234). A high percentage of multiparous mothers exclusively breastfed their infants for six months (63.5%) as compared to primiparous mothers (51.5%). The most common reason for introducing pre-lacteal feed before six months among primiparous mothers is the lack of adequate milk production to fulfill baby needs; this was the case for 35.4% of mothers. On the other hand, the baby remaining hungry post breastfeeding was the major reason among multiparous mothers (44.0%) for introducing pre-lacteal feed before six months.Conclusion: This study helped in the identification of issues faced by primiparous and multiparous mothers during exclusive breastfeeding. Interventions for promoting EBF need to be tailored as per the need and challenges of the population.

The body condition constraint and the experience condition constraint hypotheses have both been proposed to account for differences in reproductive success between multiparous (experienced) and primiparous (first-time) mothers. However, because primiparous mothers are typically characterized by both inferior body condition and lack of experience when compared to multiparous mothers, interpreting experience related differences in maternal care as support for either the body condition constraint hypothesis or the experience constraint hypothesis is extremely difficult. Here, we examined maternal behaviour in captive giant pandas, allowing us to simultaneously control for body condition and provide a rigorous test of the experience constraint hypothesis in this endangered animal. We found that multiparous mothers spent more time engaged in key maternal behaviours (nursing, grooming, and holding cubs) and had significantly less vocal cubs than primiparous mothers. This study provides the first evidence supporting the experience constraint hypothesis in the order Carnivora, and may have utility for captive breeding programs in which it is important to monitor the welfare of this species’ highly altricial cubs, whose survival is almost entirely dependent on receiving adequate maternal care during the first few weeks of life.

To know the strategies of mothers during the feeding process in children aged 6 to 24 months in two communities of Lima. Qualitative study in which 18 primiparous or multiparous mothers of children aged 6-24 months participated. We used intentional sampling by age and parity of the mother, and conducted 36 direct observations and 12 in-depth interviews. Inductive data analysis was conducted, categories were grouped by subject and technique, reaching a consensus of the themes among the authors. Verbal communication was markedly greater in multiparous mothers. Three major themes were found. Verbal mother-child communication, multiparous mothers were those who used affectionate words during the meal. Involvement and strategies in the feeding process was seen as characterized by encouraging the child to finish the meal with games and singing that multiparous mothers performed sometimes with help from other family members. However these results were not obtained by primiparous mothers, they usually became withdrawn upon the rejection of food. The context during eating favors whether a child will finish the meal. The strategies used during meal time were varied and biased, predominantly by multiparous mothers, acting in a more active and responsive way. However primiparous mothers may act in an authoritarian manner when the child gets dirty, plays and/or refuses food.

Life history is influenced by factors both intrinsic (e.g., body and relative brain size) and extrinsic (e.g., diet, environmental instability) to organisms. In this study, we examine the prediction that energetic risk influences the life history of gorillas. Recent comparisons suggest that the more frugivorous western lowland gorilla shows increased infant dependence, and thus a slower life history, than the primarily folivorous mountain gorilla to buffer against the risk of starvation during periods of food unpredictability. We further tested this hypothesis by incorporating additional life history data from wild western lowland gorillas and captive western lowland gorillas with the assumption that the latter live under ecological conditions of energetic risk that more closely resemble those of mountain gorillas and thus should show faster life histories than wild members of the species. Overall, we found captive western lowland and wild mountain gorillas to have faster developmental life histories than wild western lowland gorillas, weaning their infants approximately a year earlier and thus reducing interbirth intervals by a year. These results provide support that energetic risk plays an important role in determining gorilla life history. Unlike previous assertions, gorillas do not have substantially faster life histories, at least at the genus level, than other great apes. This calls for a re-evaluation of theories concerning comparative ape life history and evolution and highlights the need for data from additional populations that vary in energetic risk.

The birth of a child may represent a turning point in alcohol and other drug (AOD) use trajectories, particularly for families exposed to cumulative early adversity. This prospective longitudinal study aimed to examine differences in the problem drinking trajectories of primiparous and multiparous mothers around the birth of a child. A history of AOD problems was examined as a predictor of change in problem drinking. Primiparous (n = 245) and multiparous (n = 243) women were recruited on the basis of risk for child maltreatment. Past-year maternal problem drinking was assessed with the CAGE screener (cut down, annoyed, guilty, eye opener) at childbirth and child ages 12, 24, and 36 months. Latent growth modeling was used to estimate changes in CAGE scores over the four time points. Although maternal CAGE symptoms decreased linearly from the year before the child's birth to age 36 months at the sample level, substantial differences emerged when trajectories of primiparous and multiparous mothers were examined separately. CAGE trajectories of primiparous mothers decreased sharply from the year before the child's birth to age 12 months, whereas no change was observed among multiparous mothers. Of note, an equal proportion of primiparous and multiparous women consumed any alcohol during pregnancy. In addition, a history of AOD problems predicted a slower decline in CAGE symptoms across the transition to parenthood for primiparous mothers. Parity may be an important dimension of maternal identity for AOD-focused health professionals to consider in working with mothers at risk for child maltreatment because of their problem drinking.

BackgroundThe incidence of preterm birth (PTB, < 37 weeks of gestation) has been increasing in China and many other countries in recent years. However, the causes of the increase were not well understood. The current study aims to examine the contribution of maternal age, period of delivery, and maternal birth cohorts to long-term trends in preterm birth in Guangzhou, China.MethodsIn a retrospective population-based study, data were obtained from 2,535,000 singleton live births with 20–43 gestational weeks from 2001 to 2016 and recorded in the Guangzhou Perinatal Health Care and Delivery Surveillance System, in China. The age-period-cohort models were applied to investigate the temporal changes in incidences of PTB, stratified by parity.ResultsThe incidence of preterm birth steadily increased from 5.1% in 2001 to 5.9% in 2016, with larger rise in primiparous mothers (from 5.0 to 5.9%) compared to multiparous mothers (from 5.6 to 5.9%). A J-shaped and a V-shaped relationship were found between maternal age and PTB among primiparous and multiparous mothers, respectively. A linear cohort effect was found among primiparous mothers with the lowest risk of PTB [risk ratio (RR) = 0.81, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.74 to 0.89] in 1961 and the highest risk (RR = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.00 to 1.13) in 1997 compared to the mothers born in 1981. An inverse U-shaped association between maternal birth cohort and PTB was found in multiparous mothers. There were weak decreasing period effects on the trend of overall PTB among multiparous mothers and on the trend of extremely (< 27 weeks) or very (28–31 weeks) PTB among both parity groups during the period of 2001–2012.ConclusionsOur findings showed the PTB incidences had been increasing in the past 16 years in Guangzhou, China and both maternal age and cohort effects contributed to these trends. Further studies are recommended on the impact of altered maternal age and parity on premature births and corresponding public education and public health policies.

Background: Adequate nutrition during infancy and early child hood and mother’s information and practice regarding complementary feeding are fundamentals for attaining child’s growth and development and optimum health. Complementary feeding is an additional food or drink containing nutrients, given to infants or children aged 6-23 months to meet nutritional needs other than breastmilk.&#x0D; Objectives: This study aimed to assess and compare information and practice regarding complementary feeding among primiparous and multiparous mothers&#x0D; Method: Cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among 100 mothers of child age 6-23 months in Qaladiza city in 2019. A questionnaire format was prepared to obtain necessary information with face to face technique. Data were entered and analyzed with the help of SPSS version 26.&#x0D; Result: Among all of the mothers, 57% of them were multiparous. The highest age group was 26-30 by 39%. Additionally, the highest percentage of mothers 36% were at the highest education level (graduated). There were no significant association between sociodemographic characteristics with mother’s level of information and practice. Overall, 50% and 45% of the mothers were at moderate and high level of information respectively, whereas 62% and 10% of them were at moderate and high level of practice regarding complementary feeding correspondingly. Compared to 36.8% of multiparous mothers, 55.8% of primiparous mothers were at high level of information. Regarding complementary feeding practice only 2.3% of primiparous mothers were at high level compared to 15.8% of multiparous mothers. There were no statistical significant differences between them.&#x0D; Conclusion: In this study, it was attained that there was an acceptable level of information and low level of practice regarding complementary feeding among participated mothers. In addition to that, primiparous mother’s level of information was higher with a lower level of practice compared to multiparous mothers.