The effect of maternal multisensory stimulations on bath stress in premature infants: A randomized controlled clinical trial

Abstract

Bathing in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a stressful experience to preterm infants. Reducing this stress is an important challenge in bathing preterm infants. The aim of present study was to evaluate the effects of maternal supportive interventions on the stress caused by swaddled bathing in preterm infants. In this randomized clinical trial, 48 preterm infants randomly allocated into control and intervention groups. In intervention group the mothers were asked to initiate multisensory supportive interventions 5 min before and through swaddled bathing. In controls the mothers were only present during bathing. To determine the level of stress, infant responses were recorded by camera 5 min before bathing and 5 min after bathing. Then infants' stress measured by using Newborn Stress Scale (NSS). Finding was shown that the level of stress in control group was especially increased after bathing that was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Although there was an increase in stress among interventions but it was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Considering the positive effects of multisensory interventions in decreasing the stress of preterm infants, it can be recommended as cost-free and non-pharmacological care during infants bathing.