Investigation of Relationship Between Maternal Religious Attitude and Mental Health of Infant at Birth

Background: Studies have shown that spiritual beliefs in pregnancy can affect health habits and behaviors. Confidence in the power of God leads to increased patience and a sense of security, inner peace, and calm. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the correlation between religious attitude and mental health of mothers and infants in hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2016. Methods: The study was performed on 110 mothers in labor in 2016. Convenience and purposive sampling methods were used to conduct this study after obtaining the informed consent of participants. Data collection tools consisted of demographic information and fertility characteristics, religious-attitude questionnaire, and infant mental health checklist. Results: The average maternal age was 26.425.6 in the range of 18 - 40 years. Maternal education was below diploma in 20.9% and bachelor’s degrees or higher 32.7%. The body mass index was above 25. Moreover, 65.5% (n = 72) had moderate religious attitudes. There was a statistically significant relationship between the religious attitude and mental health of the infant (P = 0.018). However, there was no significant relationship between the mental health of infant and other variables such as maternal age (r = -0.57, P = 0.5), and body mass index (r = 0.0141, P = 0.14). Conclusions: There was a relationship between the maternal religious attitude in pregnancy and the mental health of the infant. Therefore, paying attention to matters of faith and the effectiveness of spiritual care in pregnancy is recommended for promoting maternal and infant health.