Effects of Reminiscence on Distress Tolerance and Spiritual Health of Mothers with Premature Newborns Admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Isfahan, Iran

Hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit is a psychological crisis for the family. However, reminiscence has positive effects on the improvement of mental health. In this regard, this study aimed to investigate the effects of reminiscence writing on distress tolerance and spiritual health of mothers with hospitalized newborns.

This quasi-experimental study was performed on 40 mothers of newborns admitted to the intensive care unit of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Isfahan, Iran from February 2021 to August 2022. The research samples were divided into two experimental and control groups. During the hospitalization of the newborns in the hospital, the mothers in the intervention group recorded their daily memories with their newborns in a notebook for half an hour every day for 6 days. Data collection tools were demographic questionnaires, Distress Tolerance Scale by Simmons and Gaher, and the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire by Polotzin and Ellison which were completed by mothers in both groups. At the descriptive level, the mean and standard deviation values as well as frequency distribution tables were used. Moreover, at the inferential level, Chi-square, Fisher's exact, independent t-test, and Mann-Whitney tests were employed.

The distress tolerance and the spiritual health scores of the mothers in the intervention group before the intervention were 45.03±5.57 and 39.63±18.16, respectively, which were increased to 56.95±12.32 and 68.60±30.07 after the intervention, respectively. After the intervention, the scores of distress tolerance and spiritual health in the intervention group were significantly higher than those in the control.

Reminiscence in mothers of newborns admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit can positively affect the anxiety and spiritual health of mothers.