TRANSITION TO PARENTHOOD AFTER DONOR CONCEPTION

This study aims to examine donor conception (DC) mothers’ and fathers’ psychological status and their maternal and paternal mental representations (MRs) in the perinatal period, and to compare them with couples who conceived after Assisted Reproductive Technology with autologous gametes (AUT-ART), and with couples who conceived naturally (NC). All participants were followed longitudinally over their transition to parenthood at four-time points: around the 14th week of pregnancy, the 7th month of pregnancy, 1-2 months postpartum and 4-5 months postpartum. At the first assessment, the participant consisted of 85 NC mothers, 45 NC fathers, 28 DC mothers, 21 DC fathers, 35 AUT-ART mothers, and 14 AUT-ART fathers. To examine the parental psychological status, repeated measures ANOVA was performed on outcome variables to examine differences among the three groups of mothers and two groups of fathers (the sample of AUT-ART fathers were too small to perform statistical analysis), and within the four phases. The state anxiety was lower in DC mothers than in NC mothers, irrespectively of the time of assessment, while no statistically significant difference was found between the two groups of fathers. There were also no differences among the groups of mothers and fathers regarding the presence of anxiety symptomatology, trait anxiety, depression, parenting stress, and dyadic adjustment. The pregnancy-related anxiety was lower for DC mothers than both NC and AUT-ART mothers, irrespectively of the time of assessment. The pregnancy-related anxiety was lower for DC fathers than NC fathers, irrespectively of the time of assessment. ANCOVA showed that the prenatal attachment to the fetus was higher in AUT-ART mothers than in NC mothers and that the postnatal attachment to the baby was higher in DC mothers than NC mothers. No statistically significant differences between DC fathers and NC fathers were found in the prenatal attachment to the fetus, while the postnatal attachment to the baby was higher in DC fathers than NC fathers. To investigate the maternal and paternal MRs and detect the distribution of integrated/balanced, restricted/disinvested, and ambivalent/non-integrated categories among groups and across the four phases, 10 DC mothers, 10 DC fathers, 10 NC mothers, 10 NC fathers, and 10 AUT-ART mothers were selected (the sample of AUT-ART fathers was too small). This selection yielded 200 interviews (50 participants at 4 times each), which were transcribed and analysed, and a descriptive analysis was conducted. We found that all OD mothers, the vast majority of OD fathers and AUT-ART mothers had integrated balanced MRs, while NC mothers and NC fathers had more variegated results across the transition to parenthood. Moreover, we explored qualitatively the 10 non-biological mothers’ representation of resemblance with the child and representation of third-party reproduction. We reported that all 10 non-biological mothers found physical or psychological characteristics in common with the child, while the representation of third-party reproduction was more complex to elaborate. This work is supported by the University of Trieste and the Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, and is part of a larger and still ongoing longitudinal study (N. of protocol RC 17/2018) involving couples in transition to parenthood after donor conception, directed by Prof. Giuseppe Ricci. The research was designed and supervised by Prof. Maria Anna Tallandini and Prof. Giuseppe Ricci. Patient recruitment, data collection, test assessment, transcription and analysis of the interviews were carried on by Lucia Roberta Russo, Liviana Zanchettin, and Margherita Battistella. Data analysis was performed by Lucia Roberta Russo and Prof. Giorgio Gronchi. Prof. Laura Vismara supervised the evaluation of the interviews, and Prof. Maria Anna Tallandini reviewed, on a sample basis, the evaluations as an external judge.