The effect of spiritual self-care training on the attachment of the mothers of premature babies hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Taleghani Hospital, Ilam

Background. The birth of a premature baby needing to be hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) endangers the initial mother-baby relationship, affecting mother-baby attachment. Therefore, it seems necessary to provide mothers of premature babies with appropriate nursing support. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effects of spiritual self-care training on the mother-baby attachment of mothers giving birth to premature babies hospitalized in the NICU. Methods. This was a semi-experimental study with pre-test/post-test design conducted on 60 mothers with babies admitted to the NICU of Taleghani Hospital of Ilam (30 participants in each of the intervention and control groups).Two questionnaires were used for data collection, including a demographic information questionnaire and the Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale (MPAS). Five self-care training sessions (45 minutes each) were held for mothers of the intervention group according to a self-care booklet prepared by the researcher. The attachment questionnaire was again completed after one week of the last training sessions by all participants, and the data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 software. Descriptive statistics were used to present quantitative (mean ±SD) and qualitative (frequency, %) variables. The normality of the data was checked using the Kolmogorov Smirnov test, and the MANOVA and univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) tests were used to investigate the effects of the training on mother-baby attachment. The statistical significance level was considered P