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

由于身体对我们的心理健康的重要性，提高我们对影响我们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。迄今为止，很少有研究调查内脏身体信号的作用（称为内感受;克雷格等人，2002年）在怀孕期间对行为，认知和情绪的结果。怀孕期间的内感受从常规的身体内部信号扩展到包括仅在怀孕期间出现的信号，因此有必要开发针对怀孕期间的特定仪器来捕捉女性在这段时间内的身体内部体验。了解怀孕期间的内感受和围产期负面体验之间的联系可能有助于早期识别有不良产后结局风险的女性，允许实施适当的积极干预。项目questionsQuestions 1：将怀孕具体的自我报告规模来衡量interoceptiveesensibility捕捉组件的interoceptive身体的经验是独特的怀孕？问题二：内感受和身体不满意作为围产期结局（包括依恋、自我概念、母乳喂养意向和成功以及产后抑郁）的预测因子的相对贡献是什么？问题三：目前有效的行为措施，如心跳检测任务和“探针捕捉的思想采样任务”也适用于孕妇？问题4：神经影像学（EEG）测量内感受是否会引起孕妇不同的神经反应？问题5：怀孕期间内感受的任何方面是否与出生时或出生后的感知和经验有关？研究计划第一年：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。在此之后，将有两个阶段的定量分析，使用探索性和验证性因素分析，从一个大样本的~600名孕妇，收集在线。身体满意度之间的关系，interoception和围产期outcomes.使用新开发的规模，各种围产期outcomes将进行分析，在initialsample的孕妇，看看interoception的水平如何可能预测negativeperipheral experience.行为研究自我报告可以提供对内感受敏感性（内脏活动的主观意识）的理解，但不能提供内感受准确性（与客观测量相比，个体在检测和解释内感受信号方面的准确性）。因此，内感受的行为测量对于测量怀孕期间的内感受是重要的，因为许多内脏活动是无意识地发生的。24名孕妇和24名非孕妇将完成心跳检测任务和“探针捕获思维采样”任务（Smallwood和Schools，2006）。神经成像技术。脑电图仪（EEG）也将用于测量样本的皮层活动，同时执行上述行为技术。比较怀孕和非怀孕妇女大脑特定皮层区域的活动，这些区域与内部感觉的感知、情绪的处理、行为调节和感官信息的解释有关。第三年：产后随访。一个约200名原始孕妇的子集将在婴儿出生后进行随访，以调查怀孕期间内感受的任何方面是否与出生时的经验或出生后的经验有关。一个小样本也将被邀请参加一个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.