The Effect of Sensory Stimulation on Mother-Infant Interaction in Premature Infants

감각자극이 미숙아의 모-영아 상호작용에 미치는 효과

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate effect of sensory stimulation on the mother-infant interaction in premature infants. Method: The subjects of this study consisted of 36 pairs of premature infants and their mothers from NICU of one university hospital located in Taegu, 18 pairs for intervention group and 18 pairs for control group. The data were collected from May, 1999 to October, 2000. For the intervention group Field's sensory stimulation(tactile and kinesthetic stimulation) was applied 2 times a day for 10 days(10:00-11:00 in the morning and 7:00-8:00 in the afternoon by researcher and mother). To determine mother and infant interaction during feeding, tool developed by Kim Mi-Ye(1999) was used. Collected data were analyzed with SAS program using chi-square test and t-test. Result: Significant differences were found in mother-infant interaction between two groups(t=-5.38, p=.00). It indicates that sensory stimulation was effective in improving mother-infant interaction. In the aspects of the quality of mother-infant interaction, sensory stimulation was most effective in improving sensitivity to mother and infant's synchronic behaviors(t=-5.43. p=.00) and followed by growth fostering(t=-5.07, p=.00), sensitivity to infant's cues(t=-4.53, p=.00), clarity of infant's cues(t=-3.03, p=.00) and responsiveness to the mother's behaviors(t=-2.14, p= 0.04). Conclusion: Based on the result of this study, it is suggested that maternally administered sensory stimulation should be applied clinical practice to improve interaction of premature infants and their mothers.