THE EFFECT OF HOME VISITS MADE TO THE MOTHERS WITH PREMATURE BABIES UPON THEIR POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION, MOTHERHOOD ROLE AND NEWBORN’S HEALTH

Premature infants and their mothers in the postpartum period are likely to encounter with many problems. Therefore, the requirements for the care of mothers and babies have increased. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of planned home visits to the mothers with premature babies after hospital discharge upon their postpartum depression, adaptation to motherhood role and newborn’s health. The sample of the research was consisted of 60 mothers and their premature babies who were born before the 37th gestational week. The data were were analyzed through percentages, Fisher’s exact chi-square test, arithmetic means, stveard deviation, Student T test and Mann Whitney U test. The difference between the intervention and control group was significant on behalf of intervention group in terms of mean Beck’s Depression Inventory scores, adaptation to motherhood roles, newborn’s health problems (neonatal seborrhoeic dermatitis diaper dermatit, aphthae, conjunctivitis ), status of feeding with supplement food and average weight increases in birth weights. It was explored in the study that home visits to the mothers with premature babies after hospital-discharge had a decreasing effect upon mean postpartum depression scores, difficulty in adaptation to motherhood roles ve health problems of the newborn.