The Effect of Preterm Infants Massage Hospitalized in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit by Mother on Maternal-Infant Attachment

One of the environmental factors affecting development is attachment, and some factors, such as preterm infancy, can interfere with its development. Yet, one of the most important ways to increase mother-infant relationships is through massage. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a period of body massage on preterm infants by mothers on their attachment.

The present study was a clinical trial with experimental and control groups. For this purpose, among all infants of Amiralmomenin hospital neonatal intensive care  unit of Semnan city, 40 infants and mother’s selected purposefully and divided to experimental and control groups. According to the research protocol, the mothers of the experimental group massaged the preterm infants for 10 days, while the control group received only the usual care. To measure the level of mother-infant attachment, the Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale was used. The questionnaire was completed in three stages: pre-test (before the start of the massage), post-test (one day after the end of the massage) and follow-up (one month after the end of the massage) by the mothers of both groups.

The results of mixed ANOVA and Bonferroni test showed that massage of preterm infants caused significant maternal attachment to infants after post-test and its persistence was maintained after one month (P<0.0001). No significant difference was observed in different stages of the test in the control group (P>0.05).

Taking the results into consideration it can be said that preterm infant massage can be an effective and at the same time low-cost way to accelerate the formation of mother-infant attachment. This issue will reduce the stress on mothers with preterm infants and help them communicate effectively and, consequently, improve optimal development of their babies in the future.