[Enhancing Maternal-Infant Attachment in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit During the Pandemic Prevention Period]
Ling-Ying Wang1, Tai-Jing Wu2, Tsai-Lin Lu2
1BSN, RN, Department of Nursing, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan, ROC. hioooo@cgmh.org.tw.
Insights
COVID-19 pandemic restrictions impacted parent-infant attachment in NICU. An innovative intervention significantly improved maternal-premature infant attachment scores, offering a new model for family-centered care.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) care
- Maternal-infant bonding research
- Psychological impacts of pandemics on families
Background:
- Parent-infant interaction is crucial for attachment, but COVID-19 restrictions limited kangaroo care (skin-to-skin contact).
- These limitations negatively affected parent-infant attachment in the NICU, with pre-intervention scores averaging 64.6.
- Traditional attachment-building methods were not feasible during pandemic-related visitation limitations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To enhance maternal-premature infant attachment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The study aimed to increase the average attachment score by 10%, from 64.6 to 71.1.
Main Methods:
- Nurses played maternal audio recordings to premature infants and documented infant responses.
- A cloud platform facilitated bidirectional communication and data transfer.
- Mothers received emotional support and care information through expressive arts therapy and phone interviews.
Main Results:
- The intervention successfully increased the average premature infant-parent attachment score from 64.6 to 74.4.
- This represents a significant improvement in attachment scores post-intervention.
Conclusions:
- The developed intervention proved effective in enhancing maternal-premature infant attachment during pandemic restrictions.
- This approach offers a flexible, family-centered alternative to traditional care, overcoming time and location barriers.
- Findings may inform the development of new technologies for neonatal care units.
Background & Problems:
Parent-infant attachment is affected by parent-infant interaction. The limitations on related visitations during the COVID-19 pandemic suspended the opportunity to engage in kangaroo care (skin-to-skin contact) activities. These changes impacted parent-infant attachment in the neonatal intensive care unit. After investigation, the score of premature infant-parent attachment was found to be only 64.6 points during the period in which visitation limitations were in effect.
Purpose:
To enhance maternal-premature infant attachment during the pandemic period by 10% (from an average score of 64.6 to 71.1).
Resolution:
This project involved nurses playing audio files provided by mothers to their premature infants, and recording a video and taking pictures of the infants during this process. This project used a cloud platform as bidirectional pipelines. Furthermore, emotional support and caring information were provided to the mothers via expressive arts therapy and phone interviews.
Results:
After the intervention, the premature infant-parent attachment score rose to 74.4 from the pre-intervention score of 64.6.
Conclusions:
During pandemic control periods, traditional modes of care aimed at building infant-parent attachment are not applicable. The intervention project used was found to be an effective alternative approach to increasing maternal-premature infant attachment. Breaking the restrictions of time and place, this project applies family-centered care, and may provide a reference for developing software, hardware, and communication equipment for other care units related to newborns.
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