Attachment in pregnancy: women's acquaintance with their unborn children.

The purpose of this study was twofold: a) to investigate factors which impact on maternal attachment during pregnancy, and b) to increase attachment behaviors and attitudes by means of a prenatal acquaintance teaching protocol. A pretest-posttest control group design was used with random assignment to an experimental or control group. The prenatal acquaintance teaching protocol was presented to the experimental group and consisted of a discussion of fetal capabilities and responses, feeling for fetal position and listening to the fetal heart. Experimental group participants were asked to keep a Behavioral Record for 1 week noting fetal responses to maternal activities and states. Findings suggested that for a well-educated, healthy population of women who have attended prenatal classes, additional teaching about prenatal attachment does not result in a measurable change in reported behaviors and attitudes indicative of attachment.