Impaired sleep and well-being in mothers with low-birth-weight infants.
OBJECTIVE
To explore relationships between impaired sleep and well-being in mothers with low-birth-weight infants in the neonatal intensive care unit.


METHODS
Cross-sectional descriptive exploratory design.


METHODS
Neonatal intensive care unit in metropolitan Atlanta, GA.


METHODS
Twenty second-week postpartum, first-time mothers who had a low-birth-weight infant hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit.


METHODS
Self-report data were collected for sleep, fatigue, depression, and well-being. Total sleep time, wake after sleep onset, circadian activity rhythms, and light exposure were measured using a wrist actigraph.


RESULTS
Mothers reported clinically significant sleep disturbance and fatigue severity. Actigraphy showed the average nighttime total sleep time was less than 7 hours with 19%+/-2.2% wake after sleep onset, and the total daytime sleep was more than an hour. Mothers also experienced moderate depressive symptoms. Maternal well-being as measured by the Medical Outcomes Short Form-36, version 2 was approximately 1 SD below the mean scores of age-matched women in the general U.S. population.


CONCLUSIONS
Mothers of hospitalized low-birth-weight infants are vulnerable. The presence of sleep disturbances and negative physical and mental health indicators warrants further study. Intervention is needed to promote sleep for new mothers during postpartum recovery, especially mothers who are dealing with a medically ill infant.
Lee
Shih-Yu
SY
Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.. Electronic address: slee29@gsu.edu.
Kimble
Laura P
LP
Piedmont Healthcare Endowed Chair in Nursing, Georgia Baptist College of Nursing of Mercer University, Atlanta, GA.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult