An early-intervention program can significantly reduce parents' stress after the birth of a preterm infant, according to a study conducted by researchers in Norway.
"Mothers and fathers of preterm infants experience a sustained increase in parenting stress," Dr. Per Ivar Kaaresen from the University of Tromso told Reuters Health.
Kaaresen and colleagues evaluated the impact of an intervention program by randomly assigning 146 parents of preterm infants to the program or to a comparison control group.
The program consists of several sessions. The first is designed to allow the parents to "vent experiences from the hospital stay and possibly their feelings of grief."
Thereafter, the sessions aim to "enable the parents to appreciate their infant's unique characteristics, temperament, and developmental potential." The parents are taught to recognize their infant's signs of distress or stimulus overload or readiness for interaction, and to respond appropriately.
The preterm intervention group had significantly better stress scores at 6 and 12 months compared with the preterm control group — regardless of the prematurity of the baby, mothers' and fathers' education or income, or number of older siblings — the team reports in the journal Pediatrics.
"Because some studies have shown that parenting stress is a risk factor for later behavioral problems in both preterm and other children, the reduction in parenting stress during the infant's first year of life may potentially be an important factor in reducing long-term behavioral problems in these infants," the investigators conclude.
"We think that reduced parenting stress is a benefit for the parents by itself, although the effects on childhood development are still not clear," Kaaresen said. "We plan to examine the role of early parenting stress on later potential behavioral problems and the effects of reduced parenting stress on later development."