Prematurity: Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in a sample of mothers

A traumatic birth experience may be a source of psychological distress for mothers. They experience significant levels of distress, following the admission of their child to the NICU (Warren, 2000). During infants' hospitalization mothers present a major risk for suffering depressive and anxiety symptomatology (Davis et al., 2003). The aim of the present study was to identify early indicators for anxiety and depression in mothers of premature infants, during hospitalization in NICU. The sample consisted of 32 mothers (mean age = 33.81 years; SD = 4.68) of premature infants. They were administered the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS; Cox et al., 1987) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger et al., 1970) after a few days of birth. In addition we planned Infant Observations in order to explore early mother-baby interactions in NICU. Results show that the 47% of the sample reports significant scores for depressive symptomatology (using the cut off of 8/9; Benvenuti et al., 1999). High levels of state anxiety are present in the 43.8% of the mothers, while the 34.4% of the sample experiences high trait anxiety. Findings from our systematic observations of the mother-child relationship indicate that mothers with higher level of depressive symptoms have more difficulties to interact with their babies and have less confidence in their parenting role. Depressive and anxiety symptoms in mothers of premature infants may have an important impact both on early interactions and the development of the child. Given the high percentage of these symptoms relieved in our study, it is recommended to identify early situations at risk for planning interventions in NICU.