Maternal coping effort in the neonatal intensive care setting

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe maternal coping effort. The sample was composed of 30 mothers of infants hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit. Descriptive and correlational statistics were used to determine maternal coping effort and the maternal factors that may be associated with coping effort. Results of the study showed that a majority of the mothers exerted a great amount of effort to cope with situations encountered in the NICU. Maternal age, marital status, gravidity and parity, mode of delivery and ethnicity did not prove to associate significantly with coping effort. The results of this study are significant to nursing practice in the confirmation of the high degree of maternal coping associated with the hospitalization of an infant in the NICU.