Introduction: Transitioning into motherhood comes with a rush of mixed emotions. This era challenges the emotional state of a woman, for it is filled with psychological distress and many physical changes. Often it happens that some trouble ocurrs on the mental health of a new mother, which results in her impaired emotional availability (EA) to the baby. Such a state of the mother has consequences on the child's development. Purpose: The purpose of the diploma thesis is to present the concept of emotional availability and draw attention to the hardships women experience during the postpartum period. We intend to identify the factors influencing the quality of maternal emotional availability, present the asessment methods, and ways to improve the quality of mother – child interactions. Methods: A descriptive method was used with a review of electronic databases Cinahl, Science Direct and PubMed. The course of literature selection is shown with the PRISMA diagram, and the final literature was further processed with the CASP checklist. After elimination, 18 scientific and professional articles were used. Results: Impaired maternal emotional availability is manifested by a change in the mother's attitude towards her surroundings and her child, and can have negative consequences for the child's development. There are many factors that influence maternal EA, and they arise from the woman's entire life. There are several ways to assess mother-child interaction. The most commonly used in the research we went trough, are the EAS scales, which holistically assess mother - child interaction. Through educating expectant and new parents about attachment and EA, teaching mindfulness and encouraging loving interactions, the quality of EA in the relationship could be improved. The midwife's role is to provide individualised continuous midwifery care to the woman throughout the antenatal period, thus supporting, guiding, counselling and advocating for her. Discussion and conclusion: The transition to motherhood is challenging, especially when there are factors that affect the psychological state of women in an already vulnerable period. It is the task of health professionals to provide holistic treatment that offers women and their children a healthy and quality life. We encourage more research on EA in the future in the Slovenian context.
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