Abstract:
Premature infants often have a severe illness and were hospitalized in intensive care unit. It leads to maternal-infant attachment problem, less breast milk, and low body weight of infants. The purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to examine the effects of kangaroo care and milk expression program on maternal-infant attachment, breast milk supply and body weight of preterm infants. The purposive sampling was used to select 30 primigravida mothers and preterm infants who were hospitalized at the Sick Newborn Unit at Chonburi Hospital. The sample was divided equally into the experimental and control group. The experimental group received kangaroo care and milk expression program while the control group received routine care. The research instruments consisted of the demographic record form, maternal-infant attachment questionnaires, and the record form of maternal milk supply and infants body weight. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and the t-test. The results revealed that after the experiment, the mean scores of maternal-infant attachment, maternal milk supply and body weight of preterm infants in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group (p< .05). These findings indicated that the kangaroo care program can increase degree of maternal-infant attachment, maternal milk supply and body weight of preterm infants. Therefore, nurses and health care professionals should apply the kangaroo care and milk expression program to mothers having preterm infants at Newborn Unit.