Maternal Depression and Mother-to-Infant Bonding: The Association of Delivery Mode, General Health and Stress Markers

Aim: The aim of the present study was to examine associations among maternal stress level, general health, mother to infant bonding, maternal depression level, and mode of delivery. Methods: Mothers who delivered a single baby at term were recruited with a total 435 mothers participating in the study. Outcome measures: Data were collected 6 months after delivery using General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale (MIBS), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) as well as socio-demographic and medical information at 6 months. Additionally, salivary cortisol and chromogranin levels were determined. Results: The proportion of breastfeeding mothers in the vaginal delivery group (51.4%) was significantly higher than that of the cesarean section group (24%). GHQ-28 scores were significantly related to EPDS scores and MIBS scores (P < 0.001)). EPDS scores were also associated with MIBS scores (P < 0.001)). However, there was no significant relationship between salivary stress marker levels and other questionnaire scores. MIBS scores of the vaginal delivery group (1.3 ± 1.7) were significantly better than those of the planned cesarean section group (2.1 ± 2.8). Multiple regression analysis revealed that maternal age and cesarean section were significantly associated with MIBS and EPDS scores (P < 0.01). Conclusion: Maternal general health is associated with maternal psychological health. These results suggest that the support of maternal health is important to maintain maternal psychological status and bonding to infants. Because EPDS scores were significantly worse in the planned cesarean section group (4.2 ± 3.3), careful management is needed of mothers who deliver by planned cesarean section. How to cite this paper: Song, M., Ishii, H., Toda, M., Tomimatsu, T., Katsuyama, H., Nakai, Y. and Shimoya, K. (2017) Maternal Depression and Mother-to-Infant Bonding: The Association of Delivery Mode, General Health and Stress Markers. Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 7, 155-166. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojog.2017.72017 Received: December 5, 2016 Accepted: February 1, 2017 Published: February 4, 2017 Copyright © 2017 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Open Access