Maternal Uncertainty about Infants’ Hospitalization for Acute Childhood Illness: A Qualitative Study

Mothers often express intense stress and uncertainty when their children develop acute childhood illnesses and it is important for healthcare professionals to consider maternal uncertainty when providing support for mothers. This study aimed to examine maternal uncertainty about children’s hospitalization due to acute childhood illnesses. We recruited 15 Japanese mothers of children aged 1 - 12 months who had been hospitalized for the first time due to acute childhood illnesses, and conducted unstructured interviews with the participants at the time of discharge. Content analysis was used to examine uncertainty in their expression of their psychological state. Mothers’ uncertainty was classified into five categories: ambiguity about the severity of the illness, unpredictability of the course of the illness, discrepancy of the judgement with healthcare professionals, lack of information about the causes of the illness, and ambiguous appropriateness of management. The former three categories were reported as uncertainty of mothers of children with chronic diseases, while the latter two categories were particularly characteristic of mothers of children with acute childhood illnesses. It is, therefore, important to explore the causes of children’s illnesses and help mothers build confidence in their ability to manage their children’s illness before discharge.