The Evaluation of Parental Stress in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Background: Newborns should be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for any reason, causing problems such as fear, sadness, guilt and anger on their families.

Objective: To determine the reasons for stress of the families who were hospitalized baby in NICU.

Methods: This descriptive study’s data was collected with questionnaire to 150 mothers who were infants in NICU. The questionnaire was included maternal and baby’s some characteristics, the "Parental Stressor Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit", and the "Nurse Parent Support Tool". Parental Stress Scale included; 6 items related to the sights and sounds in the NICU, 17 items about the baby`s appearance and behaviors, and 11 items related to the parental role alteration. For each item on a 5 point Likert scale ranging from 1(not stressful) to 5(extremely stressful). "Nurse Parent Support Tool" is Likert-type scale as follows: 1, almost never to 5, almost always.

Results: The average age of mothers was 27.7±6.9. Reasons for hospitalization; 27.3% were sepsis, 26.0% were respiratory complaints, 25.3% were prematurity, and 21.3% were other causes. According to the Parental Stressor Scale, the mothers were most likely to enter the stress in situations related to baby`s appearance and behaviors (mean score 3.57±0.97). This was followed by stress on the sights and sounds (3.41±1.00) and the parental role (3.36±0.85). The support given by the nurses to mothers was indicated “provide good care to her child, “be optimistic about her child” and “understand the special needs of her child”.

Conclusion: It was determined that intensive care unit for mothers is stressful. Mother was stressed about the appearance and behavior of their babies. It is thought that the intensive care workers need to give more details about the characteristics of the intensive care environment and the appearance of their babies in order to reduce mother’s stress.