the effect of paternal-fetal attachment training on marital satisfaction during pregnancy

Background & aim: marital satisfaction during pregnancy is one of the factors affecting marital affectional bond. this study was performed to evaluate the effect of paternal-fetal attachment training on marital satisfaction during pregnancy. methods: this clinical trial was conducted on 60 couples referring to two health centers of mashhad, iran, in 2015. the couples were randomly divided into intervention and control groups (n=30 couples in each group). the fathers in the intervention group participated in three 120-minute sessions of paternal-fetal attachment training and the mothers in both groups (intervention and control) received the routine prenatal care. both groups were evaluated using marital satisfaction questionnaire of nathan h azarin before and three weeks after the intervention. to analyze the data, descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square test, wilcoxon, mann-whitney u test, and analysis of covariance were performed using spss, version 22. results: the mean score of marital satisfaction in men was significantly higher in the intervention group than the control group (p=0.003). the mean score of women's marital satisfaction in the intervention group increased after training from 62.63±2.58 to 66.50±2.43. however, there was no significant difference between two groups in terms of women’s mean score of marital satisfaction (p=0.083). conclusion: paternal-fetal attachment training promoted marital satisfaction in men during pregnancy, so it is suggested to hold training programs for couples during pregnancy to enhance their marital satisfaction.