Emotional State of Mothers of Premature Newborns with Intraventricular Cerebral Hemorrhages in the Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

<p>This article presents the results of a study of the emotional state and stress of mothers attending their premature infants with structural intracranial changes at the stage of their stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, sociodemographic characteristics of the family, and the relationship between the studied indicators. <strong>Sample.</strong> The study included 77 mothers (age M&plusmn;SD=32,1&plusmn;4,7 years) of prematurely born children (gestational age 28,3&plusmn;3,1 weeks; birth weight 1186&plusmn;499 g; 40 boys). <strong>Methods.</strong> To assess the emotional state and stress of the mothers, the methods of assessing depressive experiences (BDI-II; Beck et al., 1996), anxiety (Spielberger et al., 1983), the Parental Stress Scale (Miles, 1987), and the Heidelberg Family Stress Scale (Sidor et al., 2007) were used. <strong>The results</strong> of the study indicate that 69,2% of the mothers show a strong level of depressive experiences, 29,3% show a moderate level, and 1,5% show a weak level. 63,5% of mothers are found to have high and 33% have moderate values of reactive anxiety, 42% have high and 52% have moderate values of personality anxiety. About 88% of mothers cite a feeling of helplessness from not being able to protect their child from painful procedures or from not knowing how to help their child during this period of his or her life as a source of stress. Characteristics of emotional state and different types of maternal family stress were shown to be associated with socio-demographic characteristics of the family, but were not significantly associated with indicators of newborn health status and type of treatment.</p>