Evaluatıon of Stress Levels in Both Parents of Newborns Hospıtalızed in the Neonatal Intensıve Care Unit

¹Pediatrist, Department of Pediatry, Nizip Devlet Hastanesi, Gaziantep, Turkey

²Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Düzce Atatürk Devlet Hastanesi, Düzce, Turkey

³Nurse, Department of Neonatalogy, Düzce University, Düzce, Turkey

*Corresponding author: Meltem Küçükdağ, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Düzce Atatürk Devlet Hastanesi, Düzce, Turkey. Tel: 05557213875 E-mail: [email protected]

Received Date: November 24, 2022

Publication Date: January 9, 2023

Citation: Ünal N, et al. (2023). Evaluatıon of Stress Levels in Both Parents of Newborns Hospıtalızed in the Neonatal Intensıve Care Unit. Mathews J Pediatr. 8(1):29.

Copyright: Ünal N, et al. © (2023)

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The birth of a child that requires hospitalization in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can be very stressful for parents. Objective: To determine the stress level of parents of newborns hospitalized in a level III NICU of Düzce University Faculty of Medicine Hospital, and its association with clinical and sociodemographic variables. Patients and Method: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Mothers and fathers whose babies were hospitalized in the NICU during these dates, who visited their babies regularly, and who had written consent were included in the study. Instruments: i) Questionnaire to obtain data which could not be obtained from the medical record; ii) Parental Stress Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PSS:NICU) which measures the perception of parents about stressors from the physical and psychological environment of the UPCN.  SPSS package (Statistical for the Social Sciences, Version 21) program was used to evaluate the data. For the comparison of discrete variables, the chi-square test was used; for the continuous variables, the Student’s t-test was used. Results: In our study, it was determined that there was a positive correlation between the increase in the infant's need for respiratory support and all the sub-units of the mother's stress scale and the father's stress scale 'baby's appearance and behavior' sub-unit, and a positive correlation was found between vaginal delivery and maternal stress scale 'images and sounds' and 'parental role in relation to the baby' sub-unit. In the correlation analyzes performed with the baby's apgar scores, it was determined that the apgar score showed a negative correlation between the maternal stress scale's 'images and sounds' and 'baby's appearance and behavior' subunits.

Keywords: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Parental stress, Newborn