Maternal orientations during pregnancy and child developmental outcomes

Maternal orientations are reflections of a woman's psychological perceptions of her pregnancy and unborn baby. Facilitators believe the pregnancy is the consolidation of their identity, and Regulators in contrast, fear that motherhood will change their identity and lifestyle dramatically. We examined whether prenatal maternal orientations are related to later child development. The Facilitator orientation is positively related to all developmental dimensions evaluated at four months post partum. At six months, there was a relation with children's communicative and personal-social development. No relations were found for the Regulator orientation. This study shows that a more child centered orientation during pregnancy is positively associated with communicative and personal-social skills in children after birth.