Archives of women's mental healthMar 1, 2015

Family Nurture Intervention in the NICU may reduce depression and anxiety symptoms in mothers of preterm infants by 4 months

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Mar 29, 2026

Abstract

At 4 months corrected age, mean depressive symptoms were significantly lower in mothers receiving Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) compared to those receiving standard care.

Mothers of preterm infants who received FNI reported lower depressive symptoms measured by the CES-D scale.
State anxiety symptoms, assessed using the STAI, were also significantly reduced in mothers participating in FNI.
The intervention began early during the infants' stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to enhance the emotional bond between mother and infant.
Despite substantial loss to follow-up, analyses indicated that biases might have masked the measured effect size for depressive symptoms.
FNI could potentially be a feasible approach to mitigate maternal psychological issues associated with preterm delivery.

Simplified

Preterm delivery can precipitate maternal psychological morbidities. Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) was designed to minimize these by facilitating the emotional connection between mother and infant, beginning early in the infant's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay. We examined depression and anxiety symptoms of mothers of preterm infants at 4 months infant corrected age (CA). One hundred fifteen mothers who delivered between 26 and 34 weeks gestational age were randomized to receive standard care (SC) or standard care plus FNI. Mothers' self-reported depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale: CES-D) and state anxiety (Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory: STAI) symptoms were assessed at enrollment, near to term age, and 4 months (CA). At 4 months CA, mean CES-D and STAI scores were significantly lower in FNI mothers compared to SC mothers. Effectiveness of FNI can only be evaluated as an integrated intervention strategy as it was not possible to control all aspects of FNI activities. Although there was considerable loss to follow-up, analyses suggest that resulting biases could have masked rather than inflated the measured effect size for depressive symptoms. FNI may be a feasible and practicable way to diminish the impact of premature delivery on maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms.

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Family Nurture Intervention in the NICU may reduce depression and anxiety symptoms in mothers of preterm infants by 4 months

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