Abstract:
Preterm labor causes maternal postpartum depression. The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to examine the relationship between infant birth weight, maternal well-being, perceived infant well-being, self-esteem and nurse support, and postpartum depression among mothers of preterm infants. A simple random sampling method was used to recruit 110 mothers of preterm infants hospitalized in a sick newborn or neonatal intensive care unit at Khon Kaen Hospital, Roi Et Hospital, and Maha Sarakham Hospital, who visited their infants for two weeks after their infants hospitalization. Research instruments included questionnaires to gather data for demographic information, postpartum depression, maternal well-being, perceived infant well-being, self-esteem and nurse support. Data was collected during the period of May to December, 2019. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlations coefficient and Spearman's rank correlations coefficient were employed for data analysis. The results revealed that postpartum depression among mothers of preterm infants was found in 50.90 %. For correlation analysis, postpartum depression was significantly moderate negatively correlated with self-esteem (r= -.385, p< .001), maternal well-being (r= -.353, p< .001), and perceivedinfant well-being (r= -.344, p< .001). While infant birth weight and nurse support were not significantly correlated with postpartum depression. These findings suggest that nurse should apply these study results toprevent postpartum depression among mothers of preterm infants hospitalized by promoting self-esteem, maternal well-being, and perceived infant well-being.