The Effects of an Empowerment Program on the Stress Among Mothers of Neonates Undergoing Colostomy

Background It is difficult and stressful for mothers to care for neonates undergoing colostomy. The mothers of neonates undergoing colostomy usually lack knowledge and skills of home caring procedures; hence, they may experience great stress. Objectives The current study aimed to evaluate the effects of an empowerment program on the stress level of the mothers of neonates undergoing colostomy. Patients and Methods This clinical trial was conducted in the neonatal intensive care units of the Bahrami, Mofid, and AliAsghar pediatric hospitals and the pediatric medical center hospital, Tehran, Iran. In total, 42 mothers were recruited and were randomly and equally allocated to the control and the experimental groups. Primarily, mothers’ stress level was assessed one day after colostomy surgery by the depression, anxiety, and stress scale21 (DASS21). An empowerment educational program was implemented for the mothers in the experimental group while the mothers in the control group only received the routine care of the study setting. The level of mothers’ stress was reassessed one month after the study intervention. Data analysis was performed through conducting the Wilcoxon test and was applied by SPSS version 19. Results The results of the study showed that after the study intervention, stress levels in the control and the experimental groups were significantly lower than the baseline stress level (P < 0.001). The decrease in the stress level of mothers in the experimental group was significantly larger than that of the control group. Conclusions The implementation of the empowerment program in the neonatal colostomy care alleviated mothers’ stress.