Abstract
In recent years, advances in medical technology in the field of pediatrics and the promotion of home medical care have led to the transition to home care for children who are highly dependent on medical care, such as the use of ventilators. It is important for children to live in home and in the community from the viewpoint of their growth and development and QOL. However, families raising children requiring medical care at home are saddled with mental, physical, social, economic, and time burdens, such as providing not only care for severe complex disorders and their complications but also advanced medical care at home. According to a survey of children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities, 97% of medical care such as suction and tube feeding is provided by family members, and 93% of these are done by mothers. Under these circumstances, mothers who raise children requiring medical care at home are living under around-the-clock pressure due to medical care and child-rearing, as well as oppressive feeling and childcare anxiety, complicated thoughts, and stress, but no specific details of such stress have been clarified. The purpose of this study was to clarify what kind of child-rearing stress mothers who raise children requiring medical care at home have.
