Early Parental Adaptation, Prenatal Distress, and High-Risk Pregnancy.

Objectives: To examine the examined the effects of high risk pregnancy and prenatal distress on parental postnatal adaptation.

Methods: A sample of 111 expecting parents, consisting of 32 high risk pregnancy (HRP) mothers and 21 spouses and 36 matched low risk pregnancy (LRP) mothers and 22 spouses completed reports of depression symptoms (BDI) and pregnancy related concerns prenatally. At three months postpartum, parent-infant direct observations and reports of parenting alliance (PAI), stress (PSI-SF), satisfaction and efficacy (PSOC) were gathered.