Continuity of maternal stress from the pre- to the postnatal period: associations with infant's positive, negative and overall temperamental reactivity

Aim of this study was to examine whether maternal pre- and postnatal stress experiences, and continuity and change in them over 6 months predict perceived infant temperament. The sample consisted of 319 consecutive healthy mother-infant dyads. A visual analogue of mothers' prenatal stress experience was presented while the mothers were still at the maternity ward. Mothers' stress experiences (the PPS), and mother-rated infant temperament (the IBQ) were measured 6 months postpartum (M = 6.3, S.D. = 1.4 months). Pre- and postnatal stress experiences predicted perceptions of the infant as more negatively and more overall reactive temperamentally. The perceptions of the infant temperament were most negatively-tuned for mothers whose stress score was above the median both at the pre- and postnatal periods. These associations were not explained by mothers' postnatal depressive symptom scores or infant gender. The results emphasize the significance of the continuity and change of the experienced stress from pre- to postnatal period. The importance of studying infant overall reactivity is highlighted.