Investigating links between perinatal interoception, body satisfaction and maternal wellbeing.

由于身体对我们的精神健康的重要性，提高我们对影响身体体验的因素的理解是至关重要的，特别是在身体发生巨大变化的时候。到目前为止，很少有研究调查怀孕期间内脏身体信号(称为内觉；Craig等人，2002年)对行为、认知和情绪结果的作用。怀孕中的内感觉从常规的身体内部信号延伸到也包括只在怀孕期间存在的信号，因此有必要开发为怀孕期间量身定做的特定仪器来捕捉女性在这段时间内的内在身体体验。了解怀孕期间内感觉与负面围产期经历之间的联系可能有助于及早识别有可能出现后天不良结局的女性，从而实施适当的积极干预。问题1：特定于怀孕的自我报告量表是否会捕捉到独特的妊娠间感觉身体体验的组成部分？问题2：内感觉和身体不满足感对围产期结果的预测因素包括依恋、自我概念、母乳喂养和成功、成功的相对贡献是什么？以及产后抑郁？问题3：目前验证的行为内感测量方法，如心跳检测任务和探头捕捉思维采样任务，是否也适用于孕妇？问题4：内感的神经成像(EEG)测量方法是否会对孕妇产生不同的神经反应？问题5：怀孕期间内感的任何方面是否与分娩期间的知觉和经验有关，或与出生后的经历有关？研究计划一：量表开发。关于怀孕期间身体状态意识的定性信息将从孕妇和助产士的焦点群体中收集。随后，将对网上收集的约600名孕妇进行探索性和验证性因素分析两个阶段的定量分析。身体满意度、内感和围产期结果之间的关系。使用新开发的量表，将在孕妇的初始样本中分析不同的围产期结局，以了解内感水平如何预测负面的围产期体验。年度二：行为研究。自我报告可能提供对感觉间感觉(主观对内脏活动的认识)的理解，但不能提供感觉间的准确性(与客观测量相比，个体在检测和解释感觉间信号方面的准确性)。因此，由于许多内脏活动都是在无意识中发生的，因此，行为内感测量对于测量怀孕期间的内感很重要。24名孕妇和24名非孕妇将完成心跳检测任务和“探查思维采样”任务(斯莫尔伍德和斯库勒，2006)。神经成像技术。在执行上述行为技术的同时，脑电图仪(EEG)也将被用来测量样本的皮质活动。研究人员将对怀孕妇女和未怀孕妇女大脑特定皮质区域的活动进行比较，这些活动与感知、情绪处理、行为调节和对感觉信息的解释有关。年三：产后随访。约200名原始孕妇的子集将在婴儿出生后进行跟踪，以调查怀孕期间的内感是否有任何方面与分娩期间的经历或产后经历有关。还将邀请一小部分样本进行简短的半结构化访谈，以收集有关他们经历的定性数据。

Due to the significance of the body for our mental wellbeing it is crucial to improve ourunderstanding of factors that affect our bodily experience, particularly at times of greatbodily changes. To date there is little research investigating the role of visceral bodily signals(referred to as interoception; Craig et al., 2002) during pregnancy on behavioural, cognitiveand emotional outcomes. Interoception in pregnancy extends from regular internal bodilysignals to also include signals that are only present during pregnancy, so there is a need todevelop specific instruments tailored for during pregnancy to capture the internal bodilyexperience women have during this time.Understanding links between interoception during pregnancy and negative perinatalexperiences may help early identification of women at risk of poor postnatal outcomes,allowing for implementation of appropriate proactive interventions.Project questionsQuestion 1: Would a pregnancy specific self-report scale to measure interoceptivesensibility capture components of the interoceptive bodily experience that are unique topregnancy?Question 2: What is the relative contribution of interoception and body dissatisfaction aspredictors of perinatal outcomes including attachment, self-concept, breastfeedingintentions and success, and post-natal depression?Question 3: Are currently validated behavioural measures of interoception such asheartbeat detection tasks and 'probe-caught thought sampling tasks' also valid for pregnantwomen?Question 4: Would neuroimaging (EEG) measures of interoception elicit different neuralresponses for pregnant women? Question 5: Are any aspects of interoception during pregnancy related to perception andexperience during the birth, or experiences postnatally?Research planYEAR ONE:Scale development.Qualitative information about awareness of bodily states during pregnancy will be gatheredfrom focus groups of pregnant women and midwives. Following this there will be two stagesof quantitative analysis using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis from a largesample of ~600 pregnant women, gathered online.Relationship between body satisfaction, interoception and perinatal outcomes.Using the newly developed scale, various perinatal outcomes will be analysed in the initialsample of pregnant women to see how levels of interoception may predict negativeperinatal experience.YEAR TWO:Behavioural studies.Self-reports may provide understanding of interoceptive sensibility (subjective awareness ofvisceral activity) but not interoceptive accuracy (how accurate an individual is at detectingand interpreting interoceptive signals when compared with objective measures). Thereforebehavioural measures of interoception are important to measure interoception inpregnancy because much visceral activity occurs unconsciously. Twenty-four pregnant and24 non-pregnant women will complete heart beat detection tasks and a 'probe-caughtthought sampling' task (Smallwood and Schooler, 2006).Neuroimaging techniques.Electroencephalograph (EEG) will also be used to measure the cortical activity of the samplewhilst performing the behavioural techniques described above. Comparison of activity inspecific cortical areas of the brain associated with perception of internal feelings, processingof emotion, behaviour regulation and interpretation of sensory information will be madebetween pregnant and non-pregnant women.YEAR THREE:Postnatal follow-up.A subset of around 200 of the original pregnant women will be followed up after the birth oftheir baby to investigate if any aspects of interoception during pregnancy are related toexperience during birth, or experiences postnatally. A small sample will also be invited for ashort semi-structured interview to also gather qualitative data about their experiences.