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Figura A.1. Autorização da utilização do material da investigação pelo Professor Massimo
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Figura A.2. Material disponibilizado pelo Professor Massimo Ammaniti
“La Sapienza” University of Rome
Department of Clinical and Dynamic Psychology
IRMAG- R
Interview of Maternal Representations during Pregnancy – Revised Version
I. On how the mother organizes and communicates her experience through a narrative structure.
1) Could you tell me about your pregnancy? - How she felt about it, how she coped with it.
II. The desire for maternity within the personal and marital history (how the desire took shape in the woman’s personal history and in the current moment of her life-cycle; a the desire referred to her own maternal role and/or to the importance attributed to the baby).
2) What made you decide to have a baby in this moment of your life? Possibly complete with information on:
- Was it a planned or casual pregnancy? - How long was she planning it?
- Was it a shared or your individual decision? - Did she have any difficulty in fecundation?
- Were there previous miscarriages? (to be investigated: when, how many?)
III. The partner’s and family’s reaction to the news of the pregnancy 3) How did you feel when you discovered you were pregnant?
- Time and circumstances of the discovery;
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- Husband/partner’s emotional and physical reactions; similarities or differences from her own.
- Reactions of her family of origin, her family-in-law or others.
IV. Emotions and changes in personal life, in the relationship with her husband/partner and with the families of origin occurred during pregnancy (emotions related to specific changes and to the general emotional condition).
5) How did you feel and how has your life changed throughout the pregnancy? (general changes and overall emotional state).
- Explore whether there were changes between the early months of pregnancy and the present moment.
How about your husband/partner? - Examples.
6) Has pregnancy influenced your daily activities, your routine and work rhythms? - Examples.
How about your husband/partner?
7) Did it take time for you to start feeling like a mother?
8) Do you think the relationship with your husband/partner has changed? If yes, in what way?"
- Habits (examples);
- Increase or decrease in conflicts; - Sexual life;
- Husband/partner’s behaviour towards her (protective, rejecting). 9) How do you get on with your mother in this period?
- Moods (protective, detached) and how they changed before and during the pregnancy; - Habits (examples) and how they changed before and during the pregnancy.
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10) When did you first notice the changes in your body?
- Her reactions, her husband/partner’s reactions and how they differed. 11) When did you start wearing pregnancy clothes?
- How she felt about it;
- Husband/partner’s reactions.
12) Were there intense emotional moments during the pregnancy?
- Did she ever feel needy, unsupported, surprised, worried or resentful? - Specific fear (obsessive thoughts and/or preoccupations, excessive fears); - Recurrent dreams or dreams related to pregnancy.
How did you cope with these emotional states? - Did she talk to anybody about them?
What were your husband/partner’s emotional reactions to the pregnancy? - Competition, jealousy, envy, lack of interest, fears, etc.;
- Explore whether there were physical events pointing to a possible “couvade”; - Examples.
13) During the pregnancy, have you experienced preoccupations or fears related to the child or to yourself?
- Mothers sometimes refer fears of hurting their own child; has that ever happened? What do you do to disperse these fears?
14) We have been talking about your pregnancy. Are there other positive or negative aspects we have not mentioned? (self-reflective pause).
15) Have you undergone the standard medical exams and checkups during the pregnancy?"
- Did she comply regularly?
- Does she worry about them? What were the results?
- Does she use a National Health Institution or a private practitioner? - Has she consulted more than one doctor?
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- Has she attended childbirth preparation classes?
- Has she suffered from pregnancy disturbances (nausea, vomit, weight gain, cravings, constipation/diarrhea, sleep alterations)
16) How do you imagine the delivery will be? - Has she heard about it from others? - Whose presence would she like?
V. Impressions, negative and positive emotions, maternal and paternal representations: space for the internal baby.
17) How did you feel when you realized there was a baby within you? Did that happen with the foetus’s first movements?
- During which month was that? Does the baby move around a lot? - In what circumstances?
- How does she interpret the movements? (as connected or not to the mother’s temperament and mood, for example).
- Examples.
18) How do you imagine your baby?
- Gender, physical and temperamental features How does your husband/partner imagine the baby?
19) Would you say there already is a relationship between you and your baby? How would you describe it?
- Do she and her husband/partner happen to talk to the baby or call him/her by a nickname?
- Examples.
20) Have you ever dreamt of the baby?
- How was he/she? When did it occur? Has it happened many times? 21) Have you seen the baby in the ultrasound test?
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- What did she notice, compared to the first ultrasound? - Description of the baby;
- If not volunteered, does the mother know the baby’s gender? If not, explore the reasons they don’t know yet.
22) Have you already chosen a name for the baby?
- Who chose it? How? Is it a family traditional name?
23) What has been prepared for the baby? Who has prepared it? - Clothes, room, cot;
- Did someone help her? Who?
24) We have been talking about your baby. Are there any positive or negative characteristics which we have not mentioned yet? (self-reflective pause)
VI. Time perspective, expectations for the future (delivery, baby, one’s own function and competence, the father’s behavior, organization of daily life, maternal style, beliefs about the baby’s competence/incompetence).
25) Do you ever think of how the baby will be?
- How would she like him/her to be in the first months? How would your husband/partner like him/her to be?
How do you not want him/her to be? And your husband/partner?
26) Do you sometimes worry about your baby’s health? (referred to birth and early months).
27) What do you think your child will need in those early months?
28) We have been talking about your baby. Are there any positive or negative characteristics which we have not mentioned yet? (self-reflective pause)
29) (Administer scale 1 on the baby’s individual characteristics).
I am now going to show you a list of adjectives which will help us describe the baby you are expecting. They are coupled into opposite traits (eg passive/active) and there is a line between each opposite which allows you to choose a certain degree of each feature. Please, put an X on the point which you feel best describes the baby you are expecting.
30) Are there any features of your family of origin or your husband/partner’s family which you would not want to pass to your baby?
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31) Are there any positive or negative characteristics which we have not mentioned yet? (self-reflective pause)
32) (Administer scales 2 and 3 on the father’s and mother’s individual characteristics). I am now going to show you two lists of adjectives which may describe you and your husband/partner as individuals. Please fill them out as you did with the previous list.
33) What kind of mother do you expect to be in the first months? What kind of mother do you not want to be?
- Which feeding method does she plan to adopt (breast or bottle) and why?
What do you think the relationship with your husband/partner will be like when you’ll be taking care of the baby daily?
Do you think the baby will affect your relationship? In what way?
34) Do you think you will try training the baby to fixed schedules, in sleeping patterns for instance, starting from his first days or do you think it is better for him/her to find his/her own rhythms?
35) Do you think you will be asking for someone’s help after birth? - Whose help?
-. When does she plan to go back to work?
36) We have been talking about how you will be as a mother. Are there any positive or negative aspects which we haven’t mentioned yet? (self-reflective pause)
37) (Administer scale 4 on the maternal characteristics of self and scale 5 on the paternal characteristics of the child’s father).
"I am now going to show you two lists of adjectives which may descirbe how you expect to be as a mother and how you expect your husband/partner to be as a father; please, fill them out as you did with the previous lists.
VII. Historical perspective with respect to mother’s past 38) How would you describe yourself as a child?
- Appearance, temperament, habits (in the first year of life). 39) How was your childhood relationship with your parents?
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- Description of the relationship with the father; - Description of the parents as a marital couple; - Examples.
40) Did you have any traumatic or particularly difficult experience during your childhood?
- Deaths, illnesses, separation from parents, home-leaving.
41) Do you think these experiences may influence what kind of parent you will be and your relationship with your baby?
42) Have you recently experienced any traumatic or particularly difficult event? - Deaths, illnesses, separation from parents, home-leaving.
43) What effects do you think these experiences may have on you and on the relationship with your baby?
44) We have talked about your mother. Are there any positive or negative elements which you have not mentioned yet? (self-reflective pause)
45) (Administer scale 6 on the maternal characteristics of the mother’s mother).
I am going to show you a list of adjectives which may describe your mother’s behavior and attitude during your childhood. Please, fill it out as you did before. 46) And we have talked about your father. Are there any positive or negative characteristics about him which you have not mentioned yet? (self-reflective pause) 47) (Administer scale 7 of the paternal characteristics of the mother’s father).
I am going to show you a list of adjectives which may describe your father’s behavior and attitude during your childhood. Please, fill it out as you did before.
48) In what way do you think you will be different from your mother, in the relationship with your child?
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