Coté, John J., Dilsaver, Danielle B, Dimmock, James, Doehrman, Pooja, Teague, Samantha, Coté, Remington D., Coté, Brayden, Kilzer, Riley, Sabbaghi, Mahsa Omrani, Borelli, Jessica L., and Massey, Suena H. (2025) Prenatal attachment interventions: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of Women's Mental Health, 28. pp. 1447-1471.

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Abstract

Purpose: Amidst a rapidly growing worldwide literature on non-invasive interventions to optimize parent–child relationships prenatally, the effectiveness of prenatal attachment intervention remains uncertain due to methodologic restrictions of prior systematic reviews. The current systematic review was aimed at capturing the diversity of study designs, intervention targets and methods employed reflective of this burgeoning literature. We then employed meta-regression to evaluate the impact of expected heterogeneity on estimated intervention effects.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, PsychINFO, Trip database, and Google Scholar for empirical prenatal attachment intervention studies published through August 11, 2025, with titles and abstracts written in English. Articles with main texts written in other languages were translated prior to analysis (PROSPERO ID CRD42021241199).

Results: Prenatal attachment scores increased following intervention when examining all studies (p < . 001), randomized controlled trials only (p < .001), and studies of only male expectant parents (p = .017). Specific intervention methods found to be effective were touch and Leopold’s maneuver (p = .004), fetal movement counting (p < .001), music, lullaby and singing (p = .012), relaxation techniques (p = .014), cognitive therapies (p = .022), meditation (p = .003), breathing exercises (p = .001), and educational interventions (p < .001).

Conclusions: While the prior systematic reviews of prenatal attachment interventions involving a total of 15 randomized controlled trials suggested equivocal effects of prenatal intervention, evidence from the current more inclusive review of non-randomized control trial (RCT) studies testing a wide range of intervention methods was substantially more compelling. More research on prenatal attachment in non-pregnant expectant partners and other caregivers and on promising but understudied interventions involving music and 3D fetal ultrasound images is recommended.

Item ID:	90299
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1435-1102
Copyright Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Date Deposited:	21 Jan 2026 00:37
FoR Codes:	52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5201 Applied and developmental psychology > 520101 Child and adolescent development @ 50% 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5203 Clinical and health psychology > 520302 Clinical psychology @ 50%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2005 Specific population health (excl. Indigenous health) > 200506 Neonatal and child health @ 50% 20 HEALTH > 2005 Specific population health (excl. Indigenous health) > 200509 Women's and maternal health @ 50%
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