Nursing support for mothers experiencing excessive infant crying: a scoping review protocol

The objective of this scoping review is to map the existing evidence and identify research gaps regarding nursing support for mothers experiencing excessive infant crying.

Excessive infant crying is a common and significant challenge for mothers, often leading to fatigue, frustration, and adverse mental health outcomes. While various interventions exist, there is a lack of synthesized evidence focusing specifically on nurse- or midwife-led supportive strategies for mothers experiencing these difficulties.

This review will consider studies based on the participants, concept, and context (PCC) framework. Participants are mothers of infants under 12 months of age experiencing excessive crying not attributed to an organic disease. The concept is supportive strategies (eg, educational, behavioral, or psychosocial interventions) delivered by nursing professionals (eg, registered nurses, public health nurses, midwives). Interventions by multidisciplinary teams will be included only if the nursing role is clearly described. The context includes any setting where support is delivered (eg, hospitals, community centers, home visits).

This scoping review will follow JBI methodology for scoping reviews. A 3-step search strategy will be employed: i) an initial limited search of PubMed and CINAHL; ii) a comprehensive search of PubMed, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews), ERIC, Social Care Online, and Ichushi-Web; and iii) a search of gray literature and citation searching. Two reviewers will independently screen titles, abstracts, and full-text articles against the eligibility criteria. Data will be extracted by 2 reviewers and presented in tabular format with an accompanying narrative summary addressing the review questions.

OSF https://osf.io/w4y98.