2011 Volume 58 Issue 3 Pages 89-96
This study examined the effects of early intervention on mothers and their preterm infants. Intervention aimed to facilitate mother-infant interaction by enhancing the mother’s ability to modulate her infant’s state and to read infant cues. Specifically, the intervention consisted of a nurse researcher visiting the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) before each infant was discharged, and conducting post-discharge home visits until the infant reached a corrected age of 60 weeks. For research design purposes, mother-infant dyads were placed into either (1) an Intensive Intervention Group (IIG) or (2) a Mild Intervention Group (MIG). The outcomes of the groups were then compared. The effects of early intervention were rated by examining mother-infant interaction and the durations of infant sleep and crying. Despite individual differences, there were more improved interaction scores at Time 1 in IIG members that had recorded lower interaction scores earlier than those of MIG. A lower frequency of night crying was also recorded from the IIG. The results implied that interventions teaching state-modulation methods and cue reading to the mothers should be started while their infants are in the NICU.