Proposed Topic (Most preferred): :
Clinical Safety and Quality Service III (Projects aiming at quality service to patients and their carers)
Authors (including presenting author) :
Chan MY(1), Au LC(1), Shek CC(1), Lee B(1), Cheung SC(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Princess Margaret Hospital
Introduction :
Parent-infant bonding in NICU can be impeded by infant’s illness and parental psycho-emotional distress. Enhanced their bonding can reduce infants’ mortality and length of hospital stay. It is also beneficial for preterm infant physiological stability, sleep, neurodevelopmental outcomes and breastfeeding. Despite compassionate visiting policy in Coronavirus pandemic, parents faced challenges in staying with their infants, significantly affecting bonding. To improve this situation, our unit developed a structured early intervention program to promote parent-infant bonding and family-centered care.
Objectives :
To develop interventions to promote parent-infant bonding and family-centered care, to explore parents’ experience when infants’ hospitalization, to assess the effects of interventions for their bonding.
Methodology :
The pilot program was conducted in NICU, PMH from August to October 2021 by a single group pre-test-post-test design. Early educational-behavioural intervention program was developed to infants’ NICU admission with a guidebook to parents, individual parenting activities and support by nurses. The intervention content included parent support (psychological counselling, social support, primary nursing), parent education (information on preterm infants’ characteristics and baby cues, skill learning, demonstration), therapeutic infant developmental support (comforting touch and kangaroo care). Maternal Attachment Inventory (MAI) as a self-report questionnaire was used to evaluate parent-infant bonding outcome, reflecting the intervention’s effectiveness with scores ranging from 26 to 104 and higher scores for greater parent-infant bonding. Parents were also invited to express their feelings and feedback on the program in an open-ended questionnaire.
Result & Outcome :
Total ten parent-infant dyads were recruited with 100% return of pre- and post-test questionnaires. Average gestational age of infants was 29 2/7 weeks (ranged from 26 5/7 to 33 6/7 weeks). Birth weight of infants was 40 % weighing <1000g, 30% weighing 1000g-1500g, and 30% weighing > 1500g. 100% of parents participated in basic infant care, 60% performed comforting touch and infant cuddling, 40% performed kangaroo care. Total MAI mean score was 78 (pre-test) and 102.9 (post-test). Interventions reflected effectively promoted parent-infant bonding. All parents’ feedback was comfortable with the program’s design and administration, stronger beliefs in their ability to understand their preterm infants’ behaviours and cues, and how to care their infants. Parents also expressed nurses' competence and attentiveness towards their infants became particularly important to parents.
