This study will focus on the differences regarding the mother’s mental health, wellbeing, self-esteem and depressive symptomatology on the postpartum period and its value in the mother-baby bond, considering lullabies as its mediator after the birth. For this purpose, an exploratory study was carried, using a protocol which included:
i) A socio-demographic questionnaire.
ii) The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS).
iii) The Portuguese version of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS).
iv) The Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (RSE).
v) The Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ). The sample included 471 mothers whose children showed ages between 4 and 40 weeks: 312 mothers said they sang their babies lullabies invented by themselves and 377 mothers sang in order to calm/relax their babies, it is the case that 227 mothers referred their babies actually calmed down listening to it. Despite the fact that singing their babies lullabies reveal higher self-esteem and an increased mother-baby bond, these results weren't significant considering a significance level of 5%. However, more variables were studied. Thus, it was concluded that mothers who sang or placed music for the baby during pregnancy, mothers who were already very experienced in caring for babies, and mothers who, after the baby was born, had the support of their family and father of the baby, showed improved levels in the variables under analysis. This study has practical implications for all health professionals who deal with recent mothers and babies.
Keywords
Lullabies; Maternal well-being; Maternal self-esteem; Postnatal depression; Mother-Baby Bond