The experiences of mothers with preterm infants within the first-year post discharge from NICU: social support, attachment and level of depressive symptoms
| dc.contributor.author | Leahy-Warren, Patricia | |
| dc.contributor.author | Coleman, Chelsea | |
| dc.contributor.author | Bradley, Róisín | |
| dc.contributor.author | Mulcahy, Helen | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-05-05T13:59:37Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-05-05T13:59:37Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-04 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2022-05-05T13:44:46Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Background: The estimated global premature birth rate for 2014 was 10.6%, equating to an estimate of 14.84 million live premature births. The experience of premature birth does not impact solely on the infant and mother as individuals but occurs in the context of a critical point in time when they are developing a relationship with one another. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between social support, mother to infant attachment, and depressive symptoms of mothers with preterm infants within the first 12 months' post discharge from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Methods: A correlational cross-sectional study design was used. Data were collected using a four-part online survey which included the Perinatal Social Support Questionnaire (PICSS), Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale (MPAS) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) with mothers of preterm infants (n = 140). Results: The prevalence of postnatal depression was 37.9% (95% CI: 29.8 to 46.4%). In univariable analyses, history of depression (p = 0.005), aged 35-39 years (p = 0.006), no formal social support (p = 0.040), less informal social supports (p = 0.018), lower overall maternal attachment (p<0.001) and lower overall functional social support (p <0.001)were significantly associated with a higher level of depressive symptoms. Lower scores on two of the maternal attachment subscales (quality of attachment and absence of hostility) and all four of the functional social support subscales were significantly associated with a higher level of depressive symptoms (p < 0.001 for all). In the multivariable analysis, prior history of depression (p = 0.028), lower score of maternal attachment (p < 0.001) and lower emotional functional social support (p = 0.030) were significantly associated with a higher level of depressive symptoms. Conclusion: Women who experience a premature birth, have a prior history of depression, poor infant attachment and poor emotional social support have a higher level of depressive symptoms. Results emphasise the need for professionals to encourage mobilisation of maternal formal and informal social supports. It is important to intervene early to address maternal emotional well-being and enhance the developing mother-preterm infant relationship. | en |
| dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
| dc.description.version | Published Version | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.articleid | 260 | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | Leahy-Warren, P., Coleman, C., Bradley, R.and Mulcahy, H. (2020) 'The experiences of mothers with preterm infants within the first-year post discharge from NICU: social support, attachment and level of depressive symptoms'., BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 20(1), 260. (10 pp.) doi: 10.1186/s12884-020-02956-2 | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1186/s12884-020-02956-2 | en |
| dc.identifier.endpage | 10 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1471-2393 | |
| dc.identifier.issued | 1 | en |
| dc.identifier.journaltitle | BMC pregnancy and childbirth | en |
| dc.identifier.startpage | 1 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10468/13146 | |
| dc.identifier.volume | 20 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Springer Nature | en |
| dc.rights | © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. | en |
| dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | Mother-infant attachment | en |
| dc.subject | Mothers | en |
| dc.subject | NICU | en |
| dc.subject | Postnatal depression | en |
| dc.subject | Preterm | en |
| dc.subject | Social support | en |
| dc.title | The experiences of mothers with preterm infants within the first-year post discharge from NICU: social support, attachment and level of depressive symptoms | en |
| dc.type | Article (peer-reviewed) | en |
