Family-centred care and breastfeeding self-efficacy determined how ready mothers were for their infants to be discharged from a neonatal intensive care unit

Aim: We examined if a range of factors were associated with how ready mothers were for their infants to be discharged from a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of a study on the well-being of mothers whose infants were hospitalised in the level 3 NICU at the Jewish General Hospital in Canada. We studied 132 mother-infant dyads: 70 from an open ward NICU and 62 from the purpose-built NICU with pods or single-family rooms that replaced it in 2016. The mothers completed a questionnaire on NICU stress and their perceptions of family-centred care on enrolment and another on breastfeeding self-efficacy and readiness to go home a week before discharge. The infants' characteristics were retrieved from the medical files.

Results: The infants were born at a mean age of 29.8 ± 3.1 weeks. Greater family-centred care during early hospitalisation (p = 0.01) and greater breastfeeding self-efficacy in the period before discharge (p = 0.04) were significantly associated with higher readiness for discharge. The unit design was not significantly associated with readiness for discharge.

Conclusion: The quality of early family-centred care and breastfeeding self-efficacy were significantly associated with how ready mothers were for their preterm infant to be discharged from the NICU.