Two evaluations of combined mother-infant versus separate postnatal nursing care.
Combined mother-infant postnatal nursing care was compared with traditional, separate postpartum and newborn care in two studies. In Study I, self-administered questionnaires were completed by 408 mothers and 63 staff nurses. Data were collected both before and after mother-infant care was implemented. Benefits of the new system included increased maternal competence and satisfaction with parent education, parent-infant contact, and the nurse-client relationship, increased staff satisfaction, with no increase in operational cost. There were no breastfeeding differences, but ways to improve duration were implied by reasons for stopping. These findings were replicated in a separate setting with similar sample sizes. However, in the latter case, low staff ratios appeared to limit the benefits of mother-infant care to multiparas rather than primiparas.
Regional Perinatal Education Program of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Canada.
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NE
Watters
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CM
Kristiansen
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016389:Maternal-Child Nursing / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009864:Ontario; D011181:Postnatal Care / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires