Effect of nurse-led creating opportunities for parent empowerment program on mother-infant interaction, sense of competence and mental health outcome: A randomized control trial

Background
The prematurity neonates experience numerous challenges stemming from their premature birth, resulting in a mortality rate of approximately one-third of them.
Aim
To evaluate the effect of creating opportunities for a parent empowerment program on mother-infant interaction, sense of competence, and mental health outcomes.
Design
A blinded, two-arm randomized control trial pretest-posttest design was used.
Method
The study sample was recruited from the Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Sixty mothers of preterm neonates were randomized selected to each group equally by simple randomization.
Tools
Characteristics of Preterm Neonates and their Mothers' Data record, Parent-Infant Interaction Observation Checklist, Parenting Sense of Competency Scale, and Modified Parental Stressor Scale.
Results
The majority of the studied mothers (83.3 %) had a low problem level of parent-infant interaction in the study group compared to 23.3 % of them in the control group. Furthermore, the majority of the mothers of preterm neonates in the study group had a higher sense of competency level (80.0 %) compared to 16.7 % of them in the control group. More than three-quarters of the studied mothers (76.7 %) had a low stress level in the study group compared to only 3.3 % of them in the control group.
Conclusion
The levels of parent-infant interaction, parental sense of competence, and parental stressors of mothers who had premature infants were improved by application of the Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment program interventions in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Trial registration
registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06502730/21st November 2024).