Preterm Infant Neurodevelopmental Care Training Program and Mother-Infant Attachment

Objectives: Preterm birth and admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) would disrupt mother-infant attachment. Neurodevelopmental care training and support of family programs are essential for the family of such infants. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of neurodevelopmental care training program for mothers with preterm infants on mother-infant attachment at one month's age. Materials and Methods: Study population included all the mothers of preterm infants born in the hospitals of Tehran in 2018. The research was designed as a multicenter cluster clinical trial and four hospitals were randomly selected and divided into intervention and control groups. Before the intervention, the mother-infant attachment was measured by the Maternal-Postnatal Attachment Scale (MPAS). The mothers in the intervention group received a 12-session preterm infant neurodevelopmental care training program while the control group only received the routine care in the unit. Finally, the mother-infant attachment was re-measured in both groups at the one month corrected age. Results: No significant difference was observed in the attachment score before and after the intervention in the control group but the mother-infant attachment score was significantly different in the intervention group (57.75 +/- 11.09 vs. 78.27 +/- 4.54). Conclusions: The neurodevelopmental care training program was effective and increased the mother-infant attachment rate.