Maternal age and transition to motherhood: prenatal and perinatal assessments.

The purpose of this short-term longitudinal study was to document the contents and consequences of the timing of first birth to two groups of Swedish mothers in respect to biomedical, behavioral, psychological and social variables. Fifty-one primiparous women participated in the study during pregnancy through the first 4 months postpartum. Women were assigned to group dependent upon age: those 20-29 years of age in Group 1; and those 30-39 years of age in Group 2. Methods included standard ethnographic procedures, semi-structured open-ended interviews and pre-coded questionnaires. Infant assessments included the Brazelton examination and the Neonatal Perception Inventory. Results indicated group specific maternal behavioral patterns. Group 2 mothers were more anxious during pregnancy and more likely to regard certain aspects of their transition to motherhood as problematic (e.g. breastfeeding). Additional findings included biomedical variance between groups of infants: the Group 2 infants weighed less and were less healthy than the infants born to younger mothers. Results are discussed in respect to medical precedents and psychological impact as well as the cultural patterning of motherhood.