Atoosa Tavassoli

Abstract

Premature birth and admission to the Intensive Care Unit is a stressful event for mothers of infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This stress and anxiety reduces mother’s attachment and disrupts their maternal role. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of maternal narrative writing on the tolerance of mothers of premature infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Materials and Methods: This classic experimental study was conducted on 60 mothers of premature infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The samples were selected by simple random method and divided in two groups of intervention and control. The data collection tool included a demographic questionnaire and the standard distress tolerance questionnaire introduced by Simmons in 1398. Data were collected before and after the intervention in both the intervention and control groups. In the intervention group, based on the training given, the mothers recorded their daily events 3 times a day for 10-20 minutes. Data analysis was performed by SPSS-21 statistical software using descriptive (table, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (paired t-test, independent t-test, ANCOVA test). Results: The mean score of distress tolerance in the intervention group before the intervention was 52.51 + 4.21 and in the control group was 51 + 3.57, but after the intervention, it was 56.86 + 2.92 in the intervention group and 53.81 + 4.15 in the control group. Covariance test showed a significant difference in the mean score of distress tolerance between the intervention and control groups (P = 0.005 and Eta = 0.13), so that 7% of the increase in the distress tolerance was related to the mothers' narrative writing. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that narrative writing, as an effective intervention, has an important role in increasing the distress tolerance of mothers of neonates admitted to NICU. Therefore, this treatment method can be used as an effective and low-cost intervention in the NICUs.