Indicators of maternal–infant attachment associated with PPF: binary logistic regression adjusted for sociodemographic factors†
| Fatigue at 10 days | Fatigue at 1 month | Fatigue at 3 months | |
| OR (95% CI) | OR (95% CI) | OR (95% CI) | |
| When woman first felt baby belonged | |||
| During pregnancy | 1 (ref) | 1 (ref) | 1 (ref) |
| Immediately after birth | 0.96 (0.81 to 1.13) | 0.90 (0.75 to 1.09) | 0.96 (0.74 to 1.26) |
| First few days | 1.27 (1.02 to 1.57)* | 1.28 (1.02 to 1.62)* | 1.77 (1.31 to 2.39)*** |
| First few weeks | 1.60 (1.27 to 2.00)*** | 1.61 (1.27 to 2.05)*** | 1.39 (0.99 to 1.95) |
| Only recently | 2.12 (1.52 to 2.94)*** | 2.23 (1.60 to 3.10)*** | 2.52 (1.68 to 3.77)*** |
| Not quite yet | 2.48 (1.14 to 5.43)* | 2.90 (1.34 to 6.27)** | 4.13 (1.77 to 9.64)** |
| Number of negative adjectives used about baby | |||
| 0 | 1 (ref) | 1 (ref) | 1 (ref) |
| 1 | 1.20 (1.01 to 1.43)* | 1.21 (0.99 to 1.48) | 1.27 (0.94 to 1.70) |
| 2 or more | 1.64 (1.35 to 2.00)*** | 1.52 (1.22 to 1.89)*** | 1.86 (1.36 to 2.54)*** |
| Baby considered more or less difficult than average | |||
| Difficult | 1 (ref) | 1 (ref) | 1 (ref) |
| Average | 0.52 (0.37 to 0.73)*** | 0.60 (0.43 to 0.84)** | 0.36 (0.25 to 0.52)*** |
| Easier | 0.42 (0.30 to 0.60)*** | 0.44 (0.31 to 0.63)*** | 0.30 (0.20 to 0.45)*** |
*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001.
†Adjusted for maternal age, parity, Index of Multiple Deprivation, ethnicity and age left full-time education.
PPF, postpartum fatigue; ref, reference group.