Abstract
Anxiety in the antenatal period is a common experience, associated with adverse consequences for mother and child. Specific types of prenatal anxiety may have unique associations with infant temperament. This study examines the prospective relationships between general prenatal anxiety, fear of childbirth, and specific prenatal anxiety disorders and early infant temperament 8 weeks postpartum. Data were derived from the Akershus Birth Cohort (ABC), a longitudinal cohort study which targeted all women scheduled to give birth at Akershus University Hospital, Norway. Psychometric measures pertained to general prenatal anxiety (Hopkins Symptom Checklist), fear of childbirth (Wijma delivery expectancy questionnaire), screening for manifest prenatal anxiety disorders based on questions from the mini-international neuropsychiatric interview, and difficult infant temperament (Infant Characteristics Questionnaire). The sample for the present study included 2206 women. General prenatal anxiety, fear of childbirth, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and specific phobia presented unique significant prospective contributions to difficult infant temperament 8 weeks postpartum. Separate hierarchical regression models indicated that general prenatal anxiety and fear of childbirth provided the strongest unique contributions. Considering the burden on mothers and the potential long-term effects on child development, the findings of this study highlight the importance of screening women for different types of prenatal anxiety in routine obstetric care. Clinical awareness of the condition and its consequences is warranted. Due to the complexity of infant temperament as a construct with various influences, future research should consider mechanisms and influential factors pertaining to the relationship between prenatal anxiety and infant temperament.
Highlights
Anxiety in the antenatal period is a common experience, associated with adverse consequences for mother and child
Using longitudinal data from a large sample of pregnant Norwegian women, this study examines the prospective relationships between general prenatal anxiety, fear of childbirth, as well as specific anxiety disorders during pregnancy and difficult early infant temperament at 8 weeks postpartum, aiming to assess their unique contributions to difficult infant temperament
We examined the prospective relationships between general prenatal anxiety, manifest anxiety disorders during pregnancy, as well as fear of childbirth and difficult early infant
Summary
Anxiety in the antenatal period is a common experience, associated with adverse consequences for mother and child. This study examines the prospective relationships between general prenatal anxiety, fear of childbirth, and specific prenatal anxiety disorders and early infant temperament 8 weeks postpartum. With approximately 20% of pregnant women experiencing fear of childbirth (Areskog et al 1981; Jolly et al 1999; Rouhe et al 2009), it presents an important women’s health issue with adverse consequences for the infant In most cases, it includes fear for the child’s health and well-being, fear of pain, death or physical injury, or loss of control and may reach its peak in late pregnancy, when childbirth is approaching (Parker 1986; Sjögren 1997; Szeverényi et al 1998; Lowe 2000; Geissbuehler and Eberhard 2002; Melender 2002; Saisto and Halmesmäki 2003; Preis et al 2018). There is a crucial need to investigate the role of anxiety during pregnancy in order to develop appropriate preventive interventions
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