Impacts of creating opportunities for parent empowerment on maternal stress: A quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to determine the impact of an empowerment program on maternal stress. MATERIALS AND METHODS: During May 2009–May 2010, this quasi-experimental study was performed in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Shahid Akbarabadi, Rasoul-e-Akram, and Aliasghar Hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Iran). The program consists of an educational CD along with written information and reinforcing activities for parents in the intervention group, and routine education was performed in the control group. We evaluated 140 mothers who were aged 18-37 years, had a gestational age of 28-37 weeks with singleton pregrancy, and with the birth weight of the newborn being less than 2500 g. The participants did not have chronic mental or physical illnesses. They were randomly assigned to two groups of intervention and control. RESULTS: A statistically significant difference was observed between mean (SD) stress scores of mothers before and after the intervention in the intervention group [123.00 (97.24) vs. 75.00 (7.16); P < 0.01)]. CONCLUSION: This study showed the importance of training mothers in reducing their stress and enabling them to appropriately communicate with and care for their premature newborn.