Impact of mother's cognitive behavior intervention on premature infant-mother interaction

Abstract

Objective To examine the impact of cognitive behavior intervention （CBI） on mother-infant interaction in the neonatal department. Methods Low-risk appropriate for gestational age premature infants with gestational age 28-36 weeks, who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit in our hospital between August 2007 and May 2008, and their mothers were assigned to intervention group and control group respectively. Intervention group mothers （n = 19）participated in CBI. Control group mothers （n= 19） were asked to read educational materials. Mothers in the intervention group, all received 4 times interventions and 2 h for each time. The CBI process include assessment, plan, implementation and evaluation. Mothers were educated for knowledge about appearance and behavioral characteristics of preterm infants and were guided about how to take care of their babies and participate in nursing care process. Mothers completed measures on mother-infant interaction （Nursing Child Assessment Feeding Scale, NCAFS） in the first follow-up after infant discharge. Results The results showed that the scores of NCAFS and total scores of the mothers in the intervention mother-infant dyads were 46.4 ± 8.5 and 35.8±6.3,higher than in the control group （42.7±5.9 and 33.3 ± 5.6）, respectively, but there were no statistic difference between the two groups （t = 1.55 and 1.28, P〉 0. 05）. The scores of ＂mother＇s response to distress＂ were significantly higher in the intervention mother-infant group （12. 2± 1.7） than in the control group （10.7±2.4）（t=2.10,P〈0.05）. Conclusions The levels of premature infant-mother interactions are low. CBI can improve mother＇s response to premature infant＇s distress. Further study is needed to investigate the effects of CBI in improving mother-infant interaction. Key words: Infant,premature Maternal behavior Early intervention （education）