Abstract

Mothers' attitudes to their preterm and term children were examined and compared using the Semantic-Differential and an interview related to the experiences of mothers during pregnancy and after birth. It was postulated that mothers would show more concern for their preterm infant than their term infant, but this hypothesis was not supported by the results. The attitudes of mothers were analysed and the only statistical significance was in the concept `strong-weak', which indicated that mothers see their preterm child as being weaker than their term child. The interview material revealed interesting additional findings that there were two specific periods of concern, and also elaborated the `strong-weak' concept.