Understanding and managing emotional reactions in pregnancy is a relevant issue for many professionals providing support for pregnant women. Thus, appropriate tools are needed to measure pregnant women's emotions.

A non-verbal method was used to identify the patterns of emotional responses to stimuli related to participants’ current status.

Our aim was to identify the socio-demographic and pregnancy related variables determining pregnant women's emotional responses to pregnancy-related pictures.

253 pregnant women were presented a special selection of pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Stimuli related to pregnancy (babies, romantic couples, a scale, social support etc.) were rated on three dimensions: pleasantness, arousal and the capacity to take control over emotional states.

Pleasantness and control over the emotional states in response to the pictures correlated with the length of partner relationship; the level of satisfaction, cohesion and consensus in partner relationship; with maternal tertiary education; with perception of foetal movement, plannedness of pregnancy; the quality and the intensity of prenatal attachment. The level of maternal anxiety and depression correlated negatively with the pleasantness of pregnancy-related pictures, as well as with the level of control over emotional states. No effect was found with maternal age and the number of children.

Socio-demographic and pregnancy-related determinants can have a significant effect on how pregnant women perceive and rate emotional pictures related to pregnancy. A non-verbal method has been developed in order to measure maternal emotional responses during pregnancy.