Maternal Concerns in Home Care for the Premature Newborn: An Integrative Review.
Thaís Emanuele da Conceição, Maria Helena do Nascimento Souza, Rafael Braga Esteves and 3 others
PMID 38055478WHAT IT FOUND
After discharge, mothers of premature babies asked about breastfeeding, bathing, sunbathing, colic, warning signs, keeping the baby warm, and kangaroo care.
They also feared rehospitalization and the baby's survival. Discharge teaching should check these concerns.
Key findings
01After discharge, mothers of premature newborns mainly asked for guidance about breastfeeding, hygiene, sunbathing, baby colic, recognizing signs, symptoms or clinical changes, temperature control, and continuing kangaroo care at home.
02Mothers also reported anxiety, fear, insecurity, worries about rehospitalization, and concern about the baby's survival while caring at home.
03The included evidence was mostly descriptive qualitative studies, with 66.6% from Brazil.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review included 21 articles, and most were descriptive or qualitative studies, so it describes mothers' concerns rather than testing whether any intervention reduced them. The authors state that few articles from countries outside Brazil were found using their search terms, so the concerns may not represent other settings. The included studies were mostly level VI evidence, not randomized or controlled trials, so they cannot show that discharge education, kangaroo care, or follow-up improves outcomes. The review searched articles from 2012 to 2021 in English, Spanish and Portuguese, so other periods or languages may be missing.
Declared interests
The only declaration given is funding by CAPES, Finance Code 001.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that discharge teaching, kangaroo care, or phone follow-up improves infant outcomes. The review synthesizes mothers' concerns from mostly qualitative studies and does not test those interventions.