A Randomized Controlled Trial of Listening Visits for Mothers of Hospitalized Newborns

Emotional distress is frequently experienced by mothers whose newborns are hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Among these women, there is a critical need for emotional support conveniently delivered at the newborn's point of care by a trusted and medically knowledgeable professional: a NICU nurse. One promising way to enhance in situ delivery of emotional care is to have a NICU nurse provide Listening Visits (LVs), a brief support intervention developed expressly for delivery by nurses to depressed postpartum women.

This trial assessed the feasibility of having NICU nurses deliver LVs to emotionally distressed mothers of hospitalized newborns and compared depression outcomes in a small sample of participants randomized to LVs or usual care (UC).

In this pilot randomized controlled trial, emotionally distressed mothers of hospitalized newborns were randomized to receive up to six LVs from a NICU nurse or UC from a NICU social worker. To assess change in depression symptoms, women were invited to complete the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms-General Depression Scale at enrollment and 4 and 8 weeks post-enrollment.

Depression symptoms declined over time for both groups, with no difference between the two groups. A post hoc analysis of reliable change found higher rates of improvement at the 4-week assessment among recipients of LVs than UC.

NICU nurses successfully implemented LVs during this trial. Depression symptom scores did not significantly differ in the two groups posttreatment or at follow-up. Nevertheless, post hoc analyses indicated comparatively higher rates of clinical improvement immediately after LVs, suggesting the intervention can reduce maternal depression early on when women are most distressed.