The evaluation of parenthood attitudes of the mothers in postpartum period

Aim: In the first meeting after labor, attitudes of mother and father towards the infant are accepted as the first parenthood attitudes. This study was carried out with the aim of evaluating parenthood attitudes of mothers in post-partum period. Method: The study, descriptive one, was carried on 234 mothers having healthy babies and giving vaginal birth at Women Labor Hospital between the dates Jan 2011 and May 2011. The data were collected by means of survey form and The Scale of Parenthood Attitude After Labor (SPAAL) validated by Calisir et al (2009) and developed by Brittion et al (2001). During the first ten minutes when mother and father met after the labor, the observer followed the attitude of the mother towards her baby, and recorded as (+) for existing attitude, as (-) for unavailable attitude. In the scale consisting of six articles, if an attitude is observed for each article, it is given one point (1), if it isn’t observed, it is evaluated as (0) point. The fact that total score taken from the scale become high indicates that parents had positive parenthood attitude towars their infant. In order to observe natural attitude of mother, firstly, the Scale of Parenthood Attitude After Labor was filled, and then survey form was filled by observer. About 15 minutes were used for both survey forms. Before starting to the study, the decision of ethic board and permission of organization were taken. Explanations fort he pregnants coming for the labor were made, and was reported that observations after labor would be made at any time, and approval was taken from those who won’t to participate in. In the evaluation of the data, variance analysis and t-test were used. Findings: It was determined that 66.7% of the mothers were in 20-29 age group, and that 77.8% of the mothers became pregnant villingly. While 9% of mother took “0” poin, 17.5% took “six” (6) point. It was found out that total score average of the mothers was 3.20±1.95. It was also determined that, according to type of life, education level, educational level of the spouses (p