The Viewpoint of Mothers on Pain Management in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Background: Parents play a key role in the assessment and management of pain. There is not much knowledge about parental viewpoint or their participation in the pain management of the neonates admitted to the intensive care units. The present study was conducted with the aim of assessing the viewpoints of mothers about pain management of the neonates/ infants   admitted to Tabriz hospitals. Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A total of 255 mothers whose infants had been admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) were recruited by convenience sampling during September 2016 to August 2017. Data were collected using demographic questionnaire and PAIN questionnaire-Neonatal Intensive Care and analyzed using descriptive statistics using SPSS-PC v. 24.    Results: The mean age of the mothers was 28.38 ± 6.10 years and the majority of them (39%) had diploma. Among the mothers, 73 percent believed that their infants have experienced pain during admission to NICU. However, only 19% of mothers stated that nurses tried to find signs of pain in their infants; and the majority of mothers (80%) indicated that they were somewhat satisfied with the information they received from the treatment team regarding pain control for their newborn. Conclusion: Despite the prevalence of pain phenomenon in neonates, mothers' education for the symptoms of pain in their infants was inadequate. It seems that participation of mothers in pain management of their newborns makes them more capable for caring after discharge from the hospital. The study makes important findings available for future research.