Increasing Mothers’ Confidence and Ability by Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment (COPE): A Randomized, Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVES: Premature neonates are at great risk for cerebral palsy, developmental delays, hearing problems and visual impairments. Interventions to reduce the morbidities and adverse health outcomes in these neonates and improve parent-infant interaction are highly important. This study was conducted to determine the effect of the Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment (COPE) program on the perceived maternal parenting self-efficacy of premature parents. MATERIALS & METHODS: This was a randomized controlled trial with equal randomization (1:1:1 for 3 groups) and parallel group design. Forty-five preterm neonates were randomly allocated to treatment (n=15), supervision (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. COPE program was provided in the form of a 4-phase educational-behavioral intervention to the treatment and supervision groups. The primary outcome was parental self-efficacy, which was assessed by the Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy inventory. All the measurements were performed pre- and post-completion with the valid equipment and by blind assessors. RESULTS: COPE mothers reported significantly stronger beliefs regarding their parental role and have more confidence to their ability in caring of neonates compared with control mothers (P-value <0.001). CONCLUSION: An educational-behavioral intervention would strengthen mothers’ belief in themselves and knowledge about their neonates and would enhance premature mothers’ ability to care for their neonates as well as parent-infant interaction.