The Effect of Narrative Writing of Mothers on Their Stress With Care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Objective: Premature birth and hospitalization in the intensive care unit cause many crises and stresses for mothers. In the meantime, narration writing is a method of counseling to reduce mothers' stress. Therefore, we aimed to study the effect of maternal narration on the stress of mothers of premature infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Methods: This experimental study was performed on mothers of neonates admitted to the intensive care units. The experimental and control groups were selected by simple random sampling method. In the experimental group, based on the instructions given, the mothers recorded their daily events 3 times a day. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS V. 21 with descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (paired t-test, independent t-test, ANCOVA test). Results: The Mean±SD score of stress was 97.43±2.66 in the experimental group and 95.26±5.76 in the control group before the intervention. The stress level of mothers was 84.9±5.35 in the experimental group after the intervention and 87.1±5.25 in the control group. The covariance test showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (P=0.03 and Eta= 0.07) so that 7% of stress reduction changes are related to mothers' narration. Conclusion: This study showed that narrative writing as an effective supportive intervention has a vital role in reducing stress in mothers of neonates admitted to the intensive care unit.