Poster #98 - Maternal and Couple Pregnancy Wantedness: Associations with Perinatal Depression and Partner Support

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Pregnancy wantedness is associated with perinatal health behaviors and outcomes, although findings are often limited by reliance on dichotomous measures of pregnancy wantedness (“yes/no,” e.g., Hall et al., 2017). Furthermore, there is little research on couple concordance about pregnancy wantedness (Hohmann-Marriott, 2009). Utilizing a novel protocol of individual maternal and couple pregnancy wantedness, this study sought to understand relations between wantedness and prenatal and postnatal maternal depression symptoms, partner support, and pregnancy demographics (e.g., age at first pregnancy). We hypothesized that higher levels of individual wantedness and concordant couple wantedness (both partners in agreement) would be associated with lower maternal perinatal depression symptoms and higher partner support.
Participants were 101 ethnically-diverse pregnant women (M = 29.10 years, SD = 6.56, range = 18-44; 37% Latina, 22% African American, 20% White, 21% biracial/multiracial/other; 26% Spanish-speaking), interviewed during their second or third trimester and when babies were three to four months old. Trained raters coded individual and couple pregnancy wantedness from audio-recorded narratives during pregnancy asking women, “How did you feel when you found out you were pregnant?”,“How do you feel now about being pregnant?”, “How did the baby’s father react when you told him you were pregnant?” and “How does your baby’s father feel now about your pregnancy?”
Individual maternal pregnancy wantedness was rated on a 3-point scale assessing positivity versus ambivalence about the pregnancy using the scale: 0-Predominately Ambivalent, 1-Mixed, and 2-Predominately Positive (ICC = .91). Couple pregnancy wantedness was rated using four categories: Equally Positive (about baby), Mom Wants More, Dad Wants More, and Equally Negative (kappa = .73). Partner support was measured with self-report (Sarason et al., 1983) and coder ratings from the Five-Minute Speech Sample (Magaña et al., 1986; Sroufe et al., 2005). Perinatal depression was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Cox et al., 1987).
Results revealed that greater individual maternal wantedness was significantly associated with higher maternal age at first pregnancy and no previous unwanted pregnancies. ANOVA analyses (with Bonferroni-corrected p-values, p = .008), indicated significant effects of couple pregnancy wantedness on maternal prenatal and postnatal depression symptoms, as well partner support during pregnancy: mothers in the Equally Positive and Dad Wants More categories had significantly lower mean prenatal depression symptoms than mothers in the Mom Wants More category. Additionally, mothers in the Equally Positive category had significantly lower mean postnatal depression symptoms than mothers in the Mom Wants More category. Finally, mothers in the Equally Positive and Dad Wants More categories had significantly higher levels of self-reported and coder rated partner support during pregnancy than the Mom Wants More category (Table 1).
Concordance of couple pregnancy wantedness is linked to perinatal depression and partner support. Women who perceive wanting their pregnancy more than their partners are at elevated risk for perinatal depression symptoms and lower partner support. This novel “pregnancy wantedness” protocol and coding system are brief to administer and code, and could be utilized by perinatal health service providers to identify couples who would benefit from targeted intervention before babies are born.

Authors

• Victoria Atzl, University of Denver
  Presenting Author

• Alexandra Ballinger, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Angela J. Narayan, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alicia F. Lieberman, University of California, San Francisco
  Non-Presenting Author