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Anxiety affects the relationship between parents and their very low birth weight infants

Phyllis Zelkowitz1, Claudette Bardin1, Apostolos Papageorgiou1

  • 1Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital and McGill University.

Infant Mental Health Journal
|June 23, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Parental anxiety after a very low birth weight infant

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal Medicine
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Background:

  • Birth of a very low birth weight infant (VLBW) can cause significant parental stress.
  • Parental anxiety in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) setting requires further investigation.
  • Understanding factors influencing parental anxiety is crucial for infant well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify medical and sociodemographic factors linked to parental anxiety in VLBW infants.
  • To assess the impact of parental anxiety on parent-infant interactions within the NICU.
  • To explore predictors of parental behavior in the context of VLBW infant care.

Main Methods:

  • Recruited 88 parents of VLBW infants from a tertiary-care hospital NICU.
  • Administered self-report questionnaires on anxiety, marital quality, and social support.
  • Observed parent-infant feeding interactions twice before infant discharge.

Main Results:

  • Maternal anxiety correlated with lower infant birth weight and gestational age.
  • Maternal anxiety associated with education, marital status, origin, social support, and marital quality.
  • Paternal anxiety linked to origin, social support, and marital quality, not infant medical risk.
  • Parental anxiety predicted behavior more than infant medical risk for both parents.

Conclusions:

  • Parental anxiety is significantly influenced by infant characteristics and sociodemographic factors.
  • Anxiety levels are stronger predictors of parental behavior than infant medical status.
  • Interventions for anxious parents are needed to foster positive parent-infant relationships in the NICU.

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