Comparing the Effect of Premature Infant Care Training and Performing Auriculotherapy Techniques on Anxiety, General Self Efficacy and Breastfeeding Self Efficacy of Mothers with Premature Infants

A preterm birth exposes the mother to many challenges in caring for and supporting the baby. This study aims to use training and auriculotherapy techniques as two simple methods to reduce anxiety and increase the mother’s self‑efficacy.

This single‑blind three‑group clinical trial study was conducted in the Bahar Hospital in Shahroud, Iran, in 2019. The target group of primiparous mothers was premature infants. For the first group, premature infant care training was provided, and for the second group, auriculotherapy techniques were performed, and the third group (the control group) received routine care. Anxiety, general self‑efficacy, and maternal breastfeeding self‑efficacy were measured at the beginning of the study and before neonatal discharge.

Before the intervention, three groups were not significantly different in demographic characteristics, obvious and hidden anxiety scores, and general self‑efficacy and lactation (p > 0.05). There was a significant difference between the control group and the two intervention groups with ANOVA test for self‑efficacy (F2,87 = 6.60, p = 0.002), breastfeeding self‑efficacy (F2,87 = 15.20, p < 0.001), obvious anxiety (F2,87 = 56.20, p < 0.001), hidden anxiety (F2.87 = 62.90, p < 0.001), after the intervention. In addition, there was no significant difference in the length of hospital stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (p = 0.732). Still, the neonate’s infant’s mean weight before discharge in the two intervention groups was significantly different from the control group (p = 0.034).

Teaching mothers how to care for premature infants and implement auriculotherapy techniques reduces anxiety and increases mothers’ general self‑efficacy and breastfeeding.