Comparison of Maternal-Infant Attachment Behaviors and Social Support in Mothers of Healthy Newborn and Premature Newborn Hospitalized in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

 The birth of a premature baby is one of the factors that can lead to impaired attachment between them. Social support of parents, especially mothers of premature infants, not only helps the family to adjust to the baby's condition and hospitalization, but also has a great effect on promoting mothers' attachment behaviors. This study was done to compare of maternal-infant attachment behaviors and social support in mothers of healthy newborns and premature newborns hospitalized in neonatal intensive care.

 This is a descriptive-comparative study performed on 136 mothers of healthy infants and premature infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of Shohada-e-Kargar, Afshar and ShahidSadoughi hospitals. The samples were selected by convenient sampling method in 2020. A record sheet of Avant maternal- neonatal attachment and the Winfield and Tigman social support questionnaire were completed. Data were analyzed using independent t-test, chi-square, ANOVA and Pearson correlation were in SPSS 16 software. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

 The mean score of social support was higher in mothers of premature infants (21.51±6.47) than healthy infants (17.36±5.88) and a statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups (p<0.001).Also, the mean of attachment behavior in mothers of premature infants (30.7±13.36) was less than healthy newborns (39.78±10.43). In subcategories, the mean score of emotional (24.11±10.04) and proximity behaviors (14.59±1.01) were higher in mothers of healthy infants, but the mean score of caring behaviors subcategory (2.62±1.67) was higher in mothers of premature infants(p<0.05).

 In this study social support and caring behaviors were higher in mothers of preterm infants. Also, attachment and sub-categories of emotional and proximity behaviors were more observed in mothers of healthy infants. It seems necessary for nurses to doing interventions for facilitating the mother-infant attachment process and provide more opportunities to support mothers in NICU.