• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.84-102
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• 1998

In this study the levels and influencing characteristics of maternal identity and self confidence for caring the baby were identified during the immediate postpartum period. 114 primiparous women who delivered vaginally normal baby participated in the survey from August 1 to October 31, 1996. SD scale was to measure maternal identity which consisted of 11 items for mother and 6 items for baby. Likert scale was to measure self confidence for caring the baby (38 items). Cronbach's alphas for evaluating internal consistency as follows : .86 for maternal identity and .96 for self confidence scale for caring the baby. The study showed these results : 1. Mean score of maternal identity(82.03 : 52.65 for mother, 29.38 for baby) was considered relatively low. 2. Mean score of self confidence for caring the baby(113.91) was considered relatively low. 3. There were significant influencing characteristics of primiparous to maternal identity : age(total ; F=3.53, p=.0329, for mother ; F=2.60, p=.0719, for baby ; F=3.12, p=.0481), prenatal infant care preparation(total ; t=2.31, p=.0306, for mother ; F=2.62, p=.0160), knowledge about infant care during the hospitalization(for baby ; F=3.94, p=.02222), colostrum feeding(total ; t=1.95, p=.0541, for baby ; t=2.71, p=.0080), frequency of breast feeding during the hospitalization(for baby ; F=3.91, p=.0228)and feeding type after discharge(for baby ; F=3.18, p=.0456). 4. There were significant influencing characteristics of primiparous to self confidence for caring the baby : routine husband support(F=6.09, p=.0031), prenatal infant care preparation(t=2.04, p=.0574), knowledge about infant care during the hospitalization(F=3.15, p=.0467), education of breast feeding during the hospitalization(t=-1.79, p=.0850). 5. Correlation between maternal identity and self confidence for caring the baby was r=.37608(p=.0001). This study implies that special education programs for primipara are needed. For the future, this study suggest that maternal role variables need to be monitored through the home visiting follow up. Also intervention programs related to prenatal care, discharge education, home visiting follow up need to be developed and then evaluated their effectiveness.