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Rahmanpour P, Farshbaf Maneisefat F, Rezae Moradali M. The Effectiveness of the Mother-child Companion Plan on Mother-fetal Attachment, Pregnancy Anxiety, and Self-compassion in Pregnant Mothers. JGUMS 2025; 34 (4) :410-423
URL: http://journal.gums.ac.ir/article-1-2760-en.html

Background Self-awareness and self-compassion are crucial factors in attachment. By developing these skills, a mother can better understand, seek closeness, and respond more effectively to her child. Implementing the mother-child companion plan may help control and reduce harm in communities by focusing on the health of mothers and children.
Objective This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the mother-child companion plan on mother-fetal attachment, pregnancy anxiety, and self-compassion in pregnant mothers.
Methods This study employed an experimental design with a pre-test-post-test format, including a control group and a one-month follow-up period. The participants were 40 pregnant women who were referred to the comprehensive health service centers in Urmia City, Iran, in 2023. They were selected using a purposeful sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in thirteen 90-minute sessions weekly and received training on the mother and child assistant plan. Questionnaires on mother-fetal attachment, pregnancy anxiety, and self-compassion were completed in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages for two groups. SPSS software, version 25 was used to perform repeated measures analysis of variance (RMANOVA) and Benferroni tests for data analysis. All statistical analyses were performed at a confidence interval (CI) of 0.05.
Results The results showed an increase in mother-fetal attachment, a decrease in pregnancy anxiety, and an increase in self-compassion in the experimental group compared to the control group (P<0.001). The within-subject effect indicated a significant difference between the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up scores over time for all three variables. The biggest difference in average scores was between the pre-test and follow-up periods.
Conclusion The mother-child support program positively affects the mental health of pregnant mothers and can play an important role in reducing common mood disorders during pregnancy and improving mother-fetal attachment. The results of this study can be useful in continuing the mother-child companion plan to prevent psychosocial challenges in pregnant mothers by program staff.