Abstract
BACKGROUND: Mental support for mothers of low birth weight infants (LBWI) or preterm infants in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a crucial issue as postpartum depressive symptoms are more prevalent among mothers of such infants in NICU compared to mothers of full-term infants. OBJECTIVE: In this pilot randomized controlled trial, we aimed to investigate the impact of psychological intervention through the neonatal behavioral assessment scale (NBAS) administration to very low birth weight infants, with or without mothers present, on the postnatal depressive symptoms experienced by mothers. METHODS: Mothers of LBWI were divided into two groups depending on their presence during NBAS assessment: Group M (n = 9) with mothers present and Group non-M (n = 8) without mothers present. Mothers in both groups answered the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) before and after the NBAS assessment. The mothers in Group M received early intervention with their infants following assessment by the NBAS. RESULTS: No significant difference was observed in the EPDS score between the two groups in this study. CONCLUSION: Early intervention using the NBAS with mothers present may yield no positive and negative effects on the mothers' depressive symptoms. Due to the small sample size of this pilot study, the results should be interpreted with caution, and there remains a need for further research about the effectiveness of the NBAS as early intervention. Trial registration number: jRCT1040230179 (JRCT).