Investigating the Relationship between Mothers' Social Support by Nurses and the Quality of Care Provided by Mothers of Preterm Infants Discharged from Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Background & Aims:The transition to home after discharge of preterm neonates has been shown to be an important stage of care.Therefore, this study aimed to determine the relationship between mothers' social support from nurses and the quality of mothers' care of preterm infants discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit. Materials & Methods:The present study was a descriptive cross-sectional-correlation study.The samples of this study were 200 mothers of preterm neonates discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit who referred to the clinics (Hazrat Ali Asghar, Shahid Akbar Abadi and Hazrat Rasool Akram hospitals) from February to November 2022 and met the study inclusion criteria.Data were collected using demographic information questionnaires, the Tarka Social Support Scale, and the Winstanley and Gattis Newborn Care Scale.Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23 software and using descriptive statistics methods (mean and standard deviation) and Pearson statistical test. Results:The results showed that the overall mean score of social support was 1 and the mean score of the affirmation dimension was 3.94, the emotional dimension was 4.10, and the objective dimension was 3.96.The overall mean score of the quality of maternal care was 2.52, the sleep dimension was 2.57, the feeding dimension was 2.47, the crying dimension was 2.52, the congruent dimension was 2.47, and the structural dimension was 2.56.Also, affirmative social support had a statistically significant correlation with infant feeding (p=0.015), and objective social support had a statistically significant correlation with congruence (p=0.021) and the overall quality of infant care (p=0.017).Conclusion: According to the results, neonatal nurses will provide objective support, including information to mothers about the quality of feeding, sleep, and how to handle infants when they cry, to help mothers respond to their infants' needs.Organizational support is needed to fund and develop practical guidelines and protocols to ensure standardization of information for parents and staff.