The Effects of Preterm Infant Care Education on Stress Among the Mothers of Preterm Infants Hospitalized in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Background and Objectives: Hospitalization in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) causes mothers high levels of stress and endangers maternal and infantile health. The current study aimed at examining the effects of preterm infant care education on stress among the mothers of such infants hospitalized in NICU. Methods: The current randomized, controlled trial was conducted in 2017 on a convenience sample of mothers whose preterm infants were hospitalized in the NICU of Vali - e - Asr teaching Hospital, Birjand, Iran. Mothers were randomly assigned to either the control or experimental group through the drawing method. Mothers in the experimental group received preterm infant care education plus routine care services, while their counterparts in the control group only received the routine care services. All of them completed the parental stressor scale: NICU both before and 10 days after the intervention. For data analysis, the paired - samples t, the independent - samples t, the Mann - Whitney U, and the Wilcoxon tests were used with SPSS version 19.0. Results: Ten days after the intervention, no significant intragroup differences were observed regarding the mean scores of the two domains of maternal stress; i e, infants’ appearance and behaviors and maternal relationships with infant (P > 0.05). However, the mean scores of maternal stress and its environmental domain in the experimental group were significantly lower than those of the control group (P < 0.05). In addition, the pretest - posttest mean differences of maternal stress and all its domains in the experimental group were significantly greater than those of the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Preterm infant care education to mothers significantly alleviated their stress. Educational hospital managers can improve maternal and infantile outcomes through facilitating maternal education about preterm infant care.