Children in Hospital with Mothers: An Experience from a Developing Country

Abstract

We studied the effect of the mother's presence in the children's ward and the factors that might influence an individual mother's decision to accompany her child during the child's hospitalization.In a period of 10 weeks, 147 children below 13 years were hospitalized; 79 (54%) were accompanied by their mothers and 68 (46%) were not. There were 88 boys (60%) and 59 girls (40%); 46 boys (52%) and 33 girls (56%) were accompanied. The mean duration of stay was 3.7 days for each accompanied child and 4.5 days for each unaccompanied child. The age of the child significantly affected the mother's decision to stay in the hospital (Table 1). Fifty-seven children (39%) had respiratory disease, and of these, 28 (49%) were accompanied; 32 children (22%) had gastroenteritis, and of these, 19 (59%) were accompanied; other diseases accounted for 58 children (39%), and of these, 32 (55%) were accompanied. The mean duration of stay was 3.3 days, 3.2 days, and 5.8 days for children with gastroenteritis, respiratory, and other diseases, respectively.