Maternal attitude and characteristics of mother-infant interactions born through IVF

Context and relevance. More than 10 million children worldwide have been born with the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART). The increasing prevalence of infertility, the expansion of ART services, and the growing use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) highlight the need to examine maternal attitudes and interaction patterns within the mother—infant dyad among women who conceived via IVF. Objective. To investigate maternal attitudes toward the infant and mother— infant interaction characteristics in mothers of infants conceived via IVF. Methods and materials. The sample included 27 mothers of infants conceived via IVF and 44 mothers of infants from spontaneous planned pregnancies. The following measures were used: the Mother’s Attitudes Test (TOM), the Postnatal Attachment Scale, the Parental Ratings of Children method, and the PCERA with expert video-based assessment of mother—child interaction. Results. In the IVF group, infants were more often delivered by caesarean section, were less often breastfed, and were more frequently hospitalized during the first year of life. Questionnaire data indicated that maternal attitudes were generally favorable and did not differ between groups. At the same time, mothers after IVF reported higher expectations of the child, particularly regarding the child’s independence. PCERA-based observation suggested that ART-conceived infants showed less pronounced exploratory behavior and vitality, higher passivity, and tendencies toward lower communicative competence. The IVF dyads also demonstrated lower coherence and organization of interaction, and mothers showed less effective structuring of the infant’s activity. Conclusions. A discrepancy was found between self-report measures indicating favorable maternal attitudes in the IVF group and observational data showing specific deficits in mother—infant interaction. These findings underscore the need for further targeted research on early interaction in families where the child was conceived using ART.