Early-stage nursing intervention establishing a childcare support model for mothers and their premature infants

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The purpose of the present study was to clarify the effects of early nursing intervention for mothers of premature infants. A nursing intervention was conducted based on assessments of premature infants' developmental level, the health conditions of mothers and their children, mother-infant interaction, and mothers' childcare-associated anxiety and stress. The final goal of the present study was to establish a childcare support model for mothers and their premature infants. Subjects were 24 pairs of mothers and their premature infants, who could be fed orally and had no congenital heart diseases or central nervous system impairments. A control group consisted of 7 pairs of mothers and their premature infants who met the same criteria. From immediately before the infants were discharged from hospital to the time they reached 40 weeks of age, nurses conducted the intervention. The contents of the early-stage intervention included teaching mothers about state modulation, the meaning of cues during lactation, and childcare consultation based on mothers' concerns. Mother-infant interaction, infant development, and mothers' childcare-related anxiety and stress were adopted as indicators of the effects of the intervention. These indicators were measured during home visitations at 46 and 60 weeks of age in both the intervention and control groups. No significant differences in any indicator were observed between intervention and control groups. In order to establish an effective childcare support model, it is necessary to accumulate further data by increasing the number of subjects, and including mothers' subjective evaluations of the intervention in addition to the evaluation based on objective indicators.