Effect of newborn’s admission to intensive care unit on “quality of life” of mother: an Indian perspective

Abstract

Background: Newborn hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) raises a mother’s risk of reduced health-related quality of life (QoL). We explored the contributors inducing stress among mothers related to NICU.

Methodology: One hundred thirty-five mothers, whose newborn has completed 48 hours of NICU stay, were interviewed using parental stress scale: neonatal intensive care unit and SF-36 health survey questionnaire for further assessment.

Results: The look and behavior of the baby were predominant contributor to the decreased QoL among mothers (p= <.001). A moderate negative association between parental stresses related to the NICU environment and their QoL $\rho \mathrm{ }$= −.467 was observed.

Conclusion: It is required to look back at the interiors of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the duration provided for the mother and child’s physical bonding, the unnecessary noise of the alarms and the jungle of wires around the baby to optimize the QoL of mothers. The further policy requires focusing on building a relation of the mother and child, especially when a child needs supportive care.

Keywords:

• Quality of life
• parental stresses
• neonate
• caregiver
• maternal stress

Acknowledgements

Author acknowledges Professor Dr. Leslie E. Lewis, Department of Pediatrics, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, KMC, Manipal for granting their permission and providing all necessary support to conduct the study at a tertiary care teaching hospital associated with Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

PR obtained permission to use PSS: NICU tool for the study from Margaret S. Miles, RN, Ph.D., FAAN, Emeritus Professor, School of Nursing, CB 7460 Carrington, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460.

PR obtained a license to use SF-36v2 scoring scale and scoring software v5 developed by Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA, from the office of grant and scholarly research, OptumInsight Life Sciences, Inc. License number: QM040366.

Ethical approval

The Institutional Ethics Committee of the tertiary care teaching hospital approved the study protocol prior to the beginning of the study (IEC 749/2016).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they do not have any competing interest.

Data availability

The dataset used and analyzed during the study is available with the corresponding author that can be shared on a reasonable request.