Effects of unplanned pregnancies on maternal behavior in the early postpartum period

Considering that mothers' first contact and interaction with their babies may influence the infants' later life, this study was performed to determine effects of unplanned pregnancies on maternal behavior in the early postpartum period. This is an unmatched case-control study and was performed on 348 women giving birth in a state hospital in Salihli and a state obstetric and pediatric hospital in Aydın in Turkey. The women were selected through non-probability sampling among those accepting to participate in the study. A hundred and seventy-four women with unplanned pregnancy and 174 women with planned pregnancy were assigned into the study group and control groups respectively. Data were collected with the Mother-Baby Characteristics Form and the Postpartum Parenting Behavior Scale (PPBS) through observations within the first ten minutes of births and at face to face interviews within 24 hours of births between November 2012 and June 2013. Obtained data were analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 15 (SPSS Inc., IL, USA) and descriptive statistics and Chi-square test. Kolmogorov Smirnov test was used to test whether the scores for the PPBS were normally distributed in the patient group. Data about the variables without a normal distribution were analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann Whitney U test. The multiple linear regression analysis was utilized to determine effects of independent variables on scores for the PPBS. The women with unplanned pregnancy and those with planned pregnancy got the mean scores of 2.01±1.24 and 5.18±0.79 for the PPBS respectively. In fact, the women with unplanned pregnancy received lower scores for maternal behavior in the early postpartum period (p<0.05). Unplanned pregnancy, births, perceived income lower than expenses and not receiving information about care for newborns were found to have a negative effect on the scores for maternal behavior (p<0.05). To conclude, unplanned pregnancies affect postpartum maternal behavior negatively. It is important that nurses and midwives should be aware of risk factors related to postpartum maternal behavior so that mothers' needs can be identified and their adaptation to motherhood can be supported.