Factors and Interventions Associated with Parental Attachment during Pregnancy in Iran: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Parents' attachment to the child is an intimate, warm and continuous relationship which is the basis of the natural development of the child. Attachment starts long before birth, and is affected by a variety of factors that are not definitively recognized. Also, several interventions have been proposed for improving it that their effectiveness has not yet been determined. Given the evidence about the role of cultural and national differences, it is necessary to review existing studies in order to identify these factors and interventions in Iran. Materials and Methods: In this review, Web of Science, Scopous, Proquest, Psycinfo, CINAHL, Embase, and PubMed databases and SID, Magiran, Irondoc, Barakat Knowledge Network System as Iranian databases were searched using English and Persian keywords such as prenatal attachment, relationship, maternal attachment between 2000 and 2017, to find articles related to prenatal attachment. The full text of the articles was studied by two reviewer and their main findings were extracted and categorized. Results: Factors and interventions associated with parental attachment summarized into 12 themes: parent education, culture, anxiety, family, planning for pregnancy, history of fetal loss, substance abuse, postpartum attachment, fetal anomaly, paternal attachment, attachment measurement tools, and effectiveness of education on prenatal attachment. Conclusion: The effect of education and counseling on prenatal attachment in Iranian parents suggests the use of these methods in prenatal care. Parent's education, social support and marital satisfaction were significant associated factors with increasing maternal attachment. History of fetal loss, anxiety and smoking was associated with the poor prenatal attachment.