Assessment of Maternal-Fetal Bonding using Heart Rate Variability at Three Longitudinal Time Points During Pregnancy

The presence of a strong bond between a mother and her child during pregnancy is important for maternal care-giving. Because the fetus is inaccessible, the same bond is usually assessed from the maternal side. However, assessment of a fetal bond to the mother can further enhance the psychosocial aspect of pregnancy. In this study, we opted for assessing maternal-fetal bond by calculating the correlations between maternal and fetal heart rate variability (HRV) from simultaneous records of non-invasive maternal and fetal electrocardiogram (ECG). The ECG data were collected from 70 pregnant women (age 25-43 years old) at three longitudinal points for 20 minutes: T1: 24-26 weeks , T2: 30-32 weeks, and T3: 36-37 weeks. In addition, we used the prenatal attachment inventory assessment (PAI) to quantify maternal bond to her child at the same three time points.To assess maternal and fetal HRV, 5-minutes of fECG was conducted and it was successful in 54 cases at T1, 30 cases at T2 and 46 cases at T3. The PAI scores of the participants where fECG extractions were successful, were used to create two groups, high PAI and low PAI per time point (T1: high PAI (n = 13) low PAI (n = 14), T2: high PAI (n = 7) low PAI (n = 9), T3: high PAI (n = 11) low PAI (n = 12)). Correlation analysis between maternal and fetal HRV per group revealed positive significant correlations at T3 in the high PAI group.