Abstract
This study examined the effects of early
intervention on mothers and their preterm infants.
Intervention aimed to facilitate mother-infant
interaction by enhancing the mother’s ability to
modulate her infant’s state and to read infant cues.
Specifically, the intervention consisted of a nurse
researcher visiting the Neonatal Intensive Care
Unit (NICU) before each infant was discharged,
and conducting post-discharge home visits until
the infant reached a corrected age of 60 weeks.
For research design purposes, mother-infant
dyads were placed into either (1) an Intensive
Intervention Group (IIG) or (2) a Mild Intervention
Group (MIG). The outcomes of the groups were then
compared. The effects of early intervention were
rated by examining mother-infant interaction and
the durations of infant sleep and crying. Despite
individual differences, there were more improved
interaction scores at Time 1 in IIG members that
had recorded lower interaction scores earlier than
those of MIG. A lower frequency of night crying
was also recorded from the IIG. The results implied
that interventions teaching state-modulation
methods and cue reading to the mothers should be
started while their infants are in the NICU.
