J Nurs Acad Soc.  1986 Dec;16(3):67-77.

A Study on Assessment of Mothers' Perception of a Newborn Baby

• Lee JH

Abstract

The research was carried out in order to assess, at an early stage, the potential barrier in mother-child relationship in the childs' development by using the screening tool. onsequently, after modifying the Neonatal Perception Inventory developed by Broussard and testing its reliability. It has been applied to 152 mothers at the hospital of three universities in Seoul from August 1 to September 00, 1986. The data was analyzed by S.P.S.S. program and the results were as follows: 1) Mothers perceived the newborn as an individual, and evaluated their baby higher than other babies. 2) Mothers indicated difficulties in their role performance in the following order-bathing, safety, detecting pain or suffering, and feeding. 3) Mothers' perceptien of a newborn was positive for 75% of the mothers. 4) The factor analysis of the modified tool using principal components analysis and Varimax rotation resulted in the two factors: Factor I, Baby as an individual; Factor II, Performances are required to meet the new-bora's needs. 5) The difference in mothers' individual characteristics such as the number of childbirth, the desire to get pregnant or not, the type of delivery, and the sex of the newborn did not influence on a mothers' perception of her newborn. As seen above, most of the mothers perceived their newborns as able individuals and expressed difficulties involved in taking care of the newborn. Also most of the mothers perceived their babies positively. My point here is, we ought to observe those mothers who perceive their babies negatively, and then compare them with those mothers who perceive their babies extremely positive or extreme ly negative. In the future, for more comprehensive assessment tool for maternal perception of the newborn, a repetitive verification and modification of this tool is demanded. At the same time, father's perception of the newborn should be included.

MeSH Terms

Fibrinogen
Humans
Infant, Newborn*
Mass Screening
Mother-Child Relations
Mothers
Parturition
Prothrombin
Seoul
Fibrinogen
Prothrombin