Mental stress in mothers of newborns admitted to neonatal intensive care: A cross-sectional, quantitative survey in a tertiary referral hospital in Botswana

Abstract

Background: Hospitalization of a neonate in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can be an overwhelming experience for a parent.

Aim: To explore stress experienced by mothers with a newborn admitted to the NICU.

Methods: Aquantitative, cross- sectional survey using a validated psychometric tool (PSS-NICU) was performed to measure maternal  stress related to NICU admissions. Mothers with a newborn admitted to the study hospital were enrolled from November 2019 to May  2020. The coding of the data was done using SPSS Ver 25. Maternal stress was quantified using the Likert scale; low (1– 2.9), moderate (3– 3.9), and high (4–5).

Results: Among the 104 enrolled mothers, the mean score was 3.28,consistent with “moderate stress”. The most stressful events identified were “parental role adjustment”, “staff communication and behaviour”, “appearance and behaviour of baby” and lastly “sights  and sounds in NICU” with scores of 3.61, 3.52, 3.33 and 2.84, respectively. Amongst all the associations studied, only lower maternal education was found to be protective against maternal stress (p-value 0.02).

Conclusion and Contribution: This study revealed a need in Botswana to address the stress experienced by mothers who have a newborn admitted to a NICU. We suggest that health care workers and policymakers should familiarize themselves with the specific sources of maternal stress when a neonate is placed in the NICU. Interventions such as unit orientation and involvement of the parents in  clinical decisions may help to facilitate family-centred care in the NICU, hence reduce maternal stress.