title: An instrument to assess the quality of maternal behavior.
abstract: Early assessment, detection, and therapeutic intervention in maladaptive maternal behavior can be facilitated by a simple nursing appraisal instrument employed initially on the third postpartum day. The Funke-Irby Interactional Assessment not only discriminates between early adaptive and maladaptive maternal behaviors, but it also illustrates a mother's progress or lack of progress toward adaptive mothering, making the instrument useful to the community health nurse during the early postdelivery weeks. This instrument has been effectively used as a screening device for nurses making decisions about the need for further referral for family therapy.
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011181:Postnatal Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D011321:Primary Nursing