Assessing the experience of motherhood: The Being a Mother Scale (BaM-13)

Background sessment of womenʹs experiences in the postpartum period is often limited to just her mood. In addition, many services aimed at ameliorating or preventing mood difficulties often do this by improving the womanʹs wider experience of motherhood, not just her mood. In exploring the literature few suitable brief self-report instruments are available to assess this wider domain of the womanʹs experience of motherhood for women with infants up to pre-schoolers. This project thus developed an instrument to assess this domain for this population. of items was generated to reflect a womanʹs wider experience of motherhood than just her mood. Four studies (N = 269 women in total) were conducted with a preliminary 12-item version, and 3 studies (N = 361 women in total) used the final 13-item version of the Being a Mother scale (BaM-13). s ychometric properties of the BaM-13 are reported, including moderate-high levels of reliability and validity. Factor analysis reveals three factors: her experience of her child; her experience of herself as an adult; and her emotional closeness with her child. Normative data on a sample of Community mothers (N = 249–496) are reported for each of the 13 items, as well as the scaleʹs receiver operating characteristics and reliable change score. tion ale has only been validated for English-speaking mothers. sions elf-report experience of motherhood questionnaire shows good clinical discrimination between women with different experiences. It is useful as both a clinical and research tool, and thus complements other scales that focus just on womenʹs mood or confidence in the postpartum period.