The effects of nursing interventions on mothers’ empowerment regarding improvement of the care of preterm infant in NICU: a Systematic review

Introduction: The birth of a preterm infant can be an overwhelming experience of guilt, fear and helplessness for parents. According to remarkable effect of nursing interventions on parents and infants in NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), which has been pointed out in different studies, this study has been done to determine the effects of nursing interventions on improving mothers’ ability in taking care of the preterm infants. Methods: This study was based on a systematic review, and it has been done in targeted form, by focusing on the study questions. The articles were studied from 2003 to 2013, by using four key words: Nursing interventions, mothers’ empowerment, preterm infants and NICU in Science Direct, Medline, PubMed, SID, Irandoc, and Iran medex databases. Relevant articles were selected after several steps of evaluation and full text of these articles were analyzed. Results: In this study, among 35280 articles, we finally selected nine. Results of four major themes including; increase of parent-infant attachment and engagement, increase of parents’ confidence in taking care of preterm infants, decrease of psychological problems (depression, fear, anxiety, anger, etc.) and increase of preterm infants’ breastfeeding skills were extracted. Conclusion: This study showed that, nursing interventions are effective in both parents and preterm infants for parents’ empowerment and partnership in taking care of preterm infant. Therefore, it is recommended to start education and care programs for parents who have had a preterm infant throughout the admission phase of the infant, discharge and after that in the houses and educational-treatment centers.