Maternal non-compliance in a well-baby nursery: family characteristics and other reasons

Abstract

Objective: Neonatal recommendations include medical follow-up, metabolic screening, vitamin K, eye drops/ointment and vaccinations. Most but not all parents follow these recommendations. This study aimed to characterize the non-adherent mothers in order to understand the reasons behind that non-adherence. Study design: All mothers who refused any routine treatment of their infant or who asked for early discharge of their infant were included. They completed a questionnaire on socio-economic items, previous births and those children’s health status, current pregnancy and delivery and their beliefs. Results: Three non-adherent subgroups emerged according to the responses: Muslim mothers requesting early discharge to care for children at home, Jewish mothers requesting early discharge because they disliked the hospital environment, Sabbath/holiday and children at home and Jewish mothers who rejected guidelines because they believed the treatments were unnecessary or possibly harmful to their infants. Conclusion: Socio-economic factors could influence maternal adherence to care guidelines in a well-baby nursery. Several interventions to enhance maternal adherence to medical recommendations are proposed in order to increase the child and family centeredness of clinical and social care.