Depressive symptoms and maternal psychological distress during early infancy: A pilot study in preterm as compared with term mother-infant dyads.

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth does not only affect infants but also represents an unexpected and traumatic event for parents. There are few reports on parenting stress during early infancy comparing preterm and term mothers, with the results being somewhat inconsistent. METHODS: As part of a longitudinal study, preterm mother-infant and term mother-infant dyads were enrolled. Dyads were assessed twice: during hospitalisation in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and at 3 months of infant age (corrected age for preterm). Each mother completed a self-report set of psychological questionnaire in both time points. All the children underwent a neurological examination at 40 weeks post conceptional age and at 3 months (corrected age for preterm). RESULTS: 20 preterm and 20 term dyads were included. NICU mothers reported elevated postnatal depressive symptoms and high stress level, even if the preterm infants were with low perinatal risk and normal neurological examination. Comparing preterm infant with low perinatal risk and normal neurological examination with term-born children at 3 months, we found higher parental stress in term mothers than in preterm mothers. LIMITATIONS: This study was limited by a relatively small sample size; findings are preliminary and warrant further investigation in larger-scale study. CONCLUSIONS: Findings confirm that becoming a mother of a preterm infant is an event associated with emotional distress. These symptoms may resolve with time, and sometimes are independent of the infant's clinical severity. Assessing parental sources of stress and subsequent follow-up is essential to promote parental support, both for preterm and term mothers.

The Mother-Child Relationship during the First Months of Life: Preliminary Considerations in Preterm as Compared with Term Mother-Infant Dyads.

INTRODUCTION: From the prognostic perspective, the quality of the mother-child relationship during the first months of life has been variously associated with different factors such as the child's psychomotor/cognitive development and emotional-behavioral disorders. METHODS: The main aim of this study was to describe, at term age and 3 months of corrected age, the features and the prevalent patterns of the mother-child relationship in a group of 20 mother-preterm infant dyads and to compare them with those of a group of 20 mother-term infant dyads. RESULTS: A relatively high rate of inadequate dyadic synchrony was found in our sample of preterms at 40 weeks of gestational age (half of the sample analyzed). The quality of the dyadic relationship and the prevalent patterns of the mother-child relationship were found to differ between the two groups we studied; moreover, the subjects at risk of relational problems remained substantially the same during the first 3 months of life. DISCUSSION: These data underline that in preterm children, the first weeks of life, coinciding with their hospitalization, represent a crucial time for establishing a valid dyadic relationship and for considering and planning any preventive interventions; after all, the earlier the risk of relational problems becomes a real possibility, the more likely it is to negatively impact on a child's overall development.