Objective The aim of this study is to describe the postpartum bonding experience of parents whose newborns were transferred to a referral hospital while their mothers remained at the delivery hospital.
Study Design A total of 18 semi-structured interviews conducted with mothers within 2 weeks of birth were completed. Thematic analysis was performed.
Result In total, 72% of mothers were unable to hold their newborns, and mothers spent a median of 15 minutes with their newborn prior to transfer. Thematic analysis revealed five themes: three barriers to bonding (medical, hospital, and family barriers) and two themes of interventions that helped promote bonding (parent and hospital-initiated interventions). Using technology such as bedside cameras, recording of heart beats, and video chatting on rounds were extremely popular.
Conclusion Parents identified multiple barriers to maternal–infant bonding and suggested several parent-focused and hospital-focused interventions to enhance bonding. Strategies that address barriers should be used to help parents promote bonding during separation from their newborns.
Key Points
BackgroundChildhood obesity studies rely on parentally reported anthropometrics. However, the accuracy of such data has not been evaluated for 12-month-old children. Moreover, methods to improve the accuracy of reported data have not been assessed in prior studies.MethodsA total of 185 children enrolled in a northern Virginia childhood longitudinal cohort genomic study had parentally completed surveys at 12 months. Measured weights and lengths were recorded for the same children from their 12-month paediatrician visit. Weight for length percentiles were calculated using World Health Organization gender-specific growth charts. The agreement between reported and measured values was examined using Pearson's correlation, paired t-test and κ statistics. The interquartile outlier rule was used to detect and remove outliers.ResultsParentally reported weight was strongly associated with measured weight at 12 months (r=0.90). There was only a moderate correlation between parentally reported and measured lengths (r=0.52) and calculated weight for length percentiles (r=0.65). After removing outliers from parentally reported data, there was an increase in correlation between parentally reported and measured data for weight (r=0.93), length (r=0.69) and weight for length percentiles (r=0.76). Outliers removed compared to all children included were more likely to have maternal education less than a bachelor's degree (p=0.007).ConclusionsAfter removal of outliers from reported data, there is a strong correlation between calculated reported and measured weight for length percentiles suggesting that this may be an effective method to increase accuracy when conducting large-scale obesity studies in young children where study costs benefit from using parentally reported data.
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