The effect of yoga on mother's stress level, mother-baby relationship, sleep and feeding problems of mother and baby: Randomized controlled study

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of yoga on the stress of mothers with babies with sleep and feeding problems, the mother-infant relationship, and the sleep and nutrition of the mother and the baby. 55 mothers with babies with sleep and feeding problems were included in the study. 26 randomized mothers served as the control group, while the other 29 were applied yoga training through the videoconferencing method, twice a week, 1 hour a day for eight weeks. Mothers were evaluated with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) for stress levels, with Parent-Child Containing Function Scale for the mother-infant relationship, with the Infancy and Early Childhood Feeding Process Mother'sAttitudes Scale for their attitudes towards the feeding process of their babies, and with Attitude Scale for Healthy Nutrition (ASHN) for their own nutrition attitudes, with Pittsburg Sleep Quality (PSQI) for sleep quality and babies with Infancy PeriodAdaptive Eating Behavior Scale for feeding problems, with Brief Infant/Child Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ) for sleep problems. Improvements were observed in mothers' stress levels (p<0.05), sleep quality (p<0.05), negative mood and nutritional attitudes related to malnutrition (p<0.05), sensitivity to anxiety and separation, and strict-normative mother-infant relationships (p<0.05) in the yoga group mothers. In the babies of yoga group mothers, improvements were observed in the frequency of night waking and duration of insomnia (p<0.05) and in reluctance and reactivity feeding behaviors. While there was a significant increase in stress levels (p<0.05) and a significant decrease in sleep quality (p<0.05) in control group mothers, there was no significant difference in terms of mother-baby relationship and their babies' sleep and feeding behaviors (p>0.05). In conclusion, yoga training is a practice that has positive effects on maternal stress, mother-infant relationship, and sleep and feeding behaviors of the mother and baby in mothers of babies with sleep and feeding problems. It is thought that it would be beneficial to include yoga training in intervention approaches with mothers of babies with sleep and feeding problems.