Social support as a factor in the development of parents' attachment to their unborn.

Two studies are discussed which have investigated the association between aspects of social support and parents' attachment to their unborn children. The first study involved interviews of 30 women in the third trimester of pregnancy and utilized a broad conceptualization of social support measured by a questionnaire developed for the study. Overall social support was positively associated with the woman's attachment to her fetus; support from health care professionals was more highly correlated with attachment (.74) than was support from family and friends (.25). The second study utilized questionnaires from 326 couples to investigate the relationship between fetal attachment and satisfaction with the marital relationship. Results revealed a positive association between marital relationship and attachment to the fetus for both men and women. Implications for further research are discussed.