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Two evaluations of combined mother—infant versus separate postnatal nursing care
Author(s) -
Watters Nancy E.,
Kristiansen Connie M.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
research in nursing and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1098-240X
pISSN - 0160-6891
DOI - 10.1002/nur.4770180104
Subject(s) - breastfeeding , nursing , medicine , competence (human resources) , nursing care , postnatal care , family medicine , psychology , pregnancy , pediatrics , social psychology , biology , genetics
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. ©1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.