Research and studies
Teaching Mothers About Their Preterm Infants

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.1986.tb01384.xGet rights and content

The effects of a structured teaching program on 30 mothers’ perceptions of and interaction with their premature (between 28 and 35 weeks’ gestational age) infants was evaluated. Mothers who agreed to participate in the study were randomly assigned to one of three study groups: control, instruction, and attention. Mothers in the control group received routine care and support from the intensive care nursery staff. Mothers in the instruction group, in addition to the usual intensive care nursery procedures, received instruction about the unique physical and behavioral characteristics of premature infants. Mothers in the attention group were provided with the opportunity to discuss nonmedical concerns about their infants or their situations with the nurse researcher. Measures of maternal perceptions and behaviors were obtained by unbiased observers during home visits two, four, and eight weeks after the infants were discharged from the hospital. No significant differences were found among the groups on maternal perceptions or interaction behaviors.

Section snippets

Physical and Behavioral Characteristics of Premature Infants

The unique physical and behavioral characteristics of premature infants may inhibit the development of positive parent–infant relationships. Parents of premature infants have described the newborn’s physical appearance (large head, thin extremities, small size, and transparent skin) as bother-some.8., 9. Parents have described their premature infant as looking like a frog, chicken, rat, baby gorilla, and skinned monkey.10., 11.

Johnson and Grubbs hypothesized that the preterm infant’s immature

METHODS

The two hypotheses tested in this study were that mothers of preterm infants who received instruction about unique physical and behavioral characteristics of premature infants would 1) demonstrate more positive perceptions of their infants and 2) demonstrate more positive maternal behaviors than would mothers who did not receive such instruction.

RESULTS

A 0.05 level of significance was used to test the two hypotheses. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures were used to test whether mothers who received instruction would demonstrate more positive perceptions of their premature infants than mothers who did not receive such instruction. No significant differences appeared among the three groups on the NPI 2 Scores (F[2, 27] = 1.5, P = 0.24). Eight mothers had negative perceptions of their infants on the NPI 1, but only four had negative

DISCUSSION

The short-term teaching program about characteristics of preterm infants did not significantly affect the perceptions or behaviors of mothers of premature infants. Several possible explanations exist for the failure to support the study hypotheses.

Intensive care nursery nurses currently may be providing optimum levels of parental support, making additional hospital-based interventions unnecessary. This possibility is supported by the findings of Brown et al and Klaus and Kennell, described

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING

Experimental studies such as this one are essential in identifying effective and ineffective nursing interventions. Ineffective intervention strategies may not harm the clients they are intended to serve but may impose unnecessary time and money costs to the providers and consumers of the services. Some untested interventions commonly used by nurses in a variety of settings may have unforeseen adverse effects on the consumers. Teaching intervention programs are often implemented by nurses

CONCLUSIONS

Although no adverse effects of the intervention evaluated in this study were identified, the study findings suggest that providing parents with structured teaching about the characteristics of their premature infants does not significantly enhance the support currently provided by individual intensive care nursery nurses. Additional experimental research is needed to determine whether other short-term interventions are effective in promoting positive parent–infant relationships or whether a

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors wish to acknowledge that the research was funded by a National Research Service Award through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Nursing, grant no. NU05480-01.

Lynda Law Harrison is an associate professor at the University of Alabama, Capstone College of Nursing, University, Alabama.

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  • Cited by (16)

    • A review of nursing interventions to foster becoming a mother

      2006, JOGNN - Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing
      Citation Excerpt :

      However, there was no increase in the intervention groups’ maternal confidence (Golas & Parks; Poley‐Strobel & Beckmann), competence (Flagler, 1988), or ease of transition to the maternal role (Brouse, 1988) scores. Nurse demonstration of infant behavior and the mother’s programmatic stimulation of her infant were more effective than information alone (Harrison & Twardosz, 1986) or other contrast conditions (Anderson, 1981; Golas & Parks, 1986; White‐Traut & Nelson, 1988). For example, mothers of preterm infants who had greater maternal involvement in interactional focused maternal‐infant stimulation had greater sensitivity to their infants’ cues and greater use of cognitive growth fostering care (White‐Traut & Nelson).

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    Lynda Law Harrison is an associate professor at the University of Alabama, Capstone College of Nursing, University, Alabama.

    Sandra Twardosz is an associate professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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