Kangaroo Care Effect on Self-Esteem in the Mothers of Low Birth Weight Infants

Low birth weight infants 40 times greater than infants weighing more than 2500 g are at risk. These infants are usually separated from the mother immediately and are transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit. This separation can affect infant’s respiratory, heart rate and body temperature. It also caused severe stress to the mother and reduced mother’s self-esteem. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of kangaroo mother care (KMC) on self-esteem in the mothers of low birth weight infants in Amirkola children hospital, Babol, Iran. In a quasi-experimental study 60 mothers of low birth weight infants were selected by convenience sampling method and assigned randomly to two study groups, (experimental; n=20 and control; n=40). Data collection tools were questionnaire (demographic information of parents and neonates and Rosenberg self-esteem scale). The intervention group take care of in KMC method (mothers in the intervention group put their infants to the vertical position in the middle of her chest in order to skin-to skin contact), while the control group had taken only ordinary care of personnel and mother. The Rosenberg self-esteem scale is completed two times, at the first time, when mothers came to visit the neonates and then at discharge time. From 60 mothers participated in this study, 29 (48.3%) were high school graduates, 53 (88.3%) were housewife and 39 (65%) had cesarean delivery method. Mean self-esteem score of mothers in the intervention group at admission and discharge were 22.1±2.7 and 23.4±1.9, respectively and in the control group when the infants were admitted and discharged it was 22.2±2.2 and 22.6±1.3, respectively. The significant difference in self-esteem of mothers before and after the intervention was not observed. In association with birth weight infants and maternal self-esteem levels, the Pearson correlation coefficient showed a significant relationship (p=0.01 and r=0.3). Results showed that KMC directly correlates with the level of self esteem and causes more peace, merit and ability in mothers.