Maternal anxiety during pregnancy can have many effects on the outcome of the pregnancy such as gestational length, birthweight, prenatal attachment, prepartum and intrapartum complications.

Three categories of pictures were presented to 149 pregnant women:

1. 1. baby pictures as cues of prenatal attachment;

2. 2. couples in erotic and family situations as cues of relationship to the partner;

3. 3. other pictures related to pregnancy (such as the physical changes of the body, experiencing social support) as cues of potential fears and coping with stressful situations.

The aim of our study is to describe the relation between pregnant women's ratings to affective stimuli and their level of anxiety.

Affective ratings have been assessed on three dimensions: valence (ranging from pleasant to unpleasant), arousal (ranging from calm to excited), and dominance/control (ranging from being overwhelmed by emotions to controling an affective state). Anxiety has been measured with HADS.

Women with high level of anxiety have rated the pregnancy related pictures less pleasant, less arousing but more overwhelming (lower level of control over an emotional state). Women with low level of anxiety have rated the pictures more pleasant, less arousing and less overwhelming (higher level of perceived control an emotional state).

High level of anxiety has correlated with special pattern of emotional reactions to pregnancy related pictures from the IAPS.