Stress Levels in Mothers of Admitted Newborns in NICU and Effect of Counseling

Objectives: To examine the effect of counseling on stress levels in mothers of neonates admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Methods: This prospective research was carried out from January 2020 to December 2020 in a central India teaching hospital providing tertiary care. Parental Stressor Scale (PSS):NICU questionnaire was used to measure maternal stress among mothers of 540 admitted infants between 3 and 7 d of admission. Counseling was done at the time of recruitment and its effect was measured after 72 h and re-counseling was done. This cycle of stress assessment and counseling was repeated every 72 h till the baby was admitted in the NICU. Overall stress levels for each subscale were determined, and pre- and post-counseling stress was compared.

Results: For the subscales of sight and sound, appearance and behavior, change in the parental role, and staff behavior and communication, the median scores were 1.5 (IQR-1.2-1.88), 2.5 (2.3-2.9), 3.3 (3.0-3.6) and 1.3 (1.1-1.62), respectively indicating high stress in the parental role alteration. Counseling was effective in reducing stress levels among all mothers irrespective of various maternal factors (p <0.01). Stress reduces more with increasing number of counseling, as suggested by higher change in the stress score with increased number of counseling.

Conclusions: This study shows that NICU mothers are under remarkable stress and repeated counseling sessions targeted at particular concerns might assist.