Anxiety levels of mothers with newborns in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Turkey

Abstract

Objective: To compare the anxiety levels of mothers with newborns in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and mothers with healthy newborns in a postpartum care service (PCS).

Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in state and medical school hospitals located in Eskisehir and Afyon, Turkey. The first 200 mothers, including mothers with newborns in a PCS (n=100) and mothers with newborns in a NICU (n=100); participants were followed starting March 1, 2014.Questionnaires to determine the characteristics of mothers and newborns were used as data collection tools, including the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Scale (STAI TX-1 – STAI TX-2).

Results: Trait anxiety levels were not significantly different between mothers with newborns in the NICU and mothers with newborns in PCS (t=0.588, p=0.557), whereas state anxiety levels were significantly different between the two groups (t=-5.109, p=<0.001). The state anxiety levels of mothers whose infants were in the NICU were determined to be higher compared to those of mothers whose infants were in PCS.

Conclusion: Being a mother of a sick newborn can elevate anxiety and lead to in mothers. During this challenging time, the support of nurses can increase mothers’ abilities to cope with the stress of a sick newborn.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/.12669/pjms.315.7792

How to cite this:Mizrak B, Deniz AO, Acikgoz A. Anxiety levels of mothers with newborns in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Turkey. Pak J Med Sci 2015;31(5):1176-1181.   doi: http://dx.doi.org/.12669/pjms.315.7792

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.