Parenting behaviour among mothers and fathers of babies staying in the neonatal intensive care unit and determination of the factors affecting them

This study has been conducted to evaluate first parenting behaviour of mothers and fathers in early postpartum period whose babies are staying in neonatal intensive care unit and to determine the factors that affect first parenting behaviour. The study is an analytical and cross-sectional one and was conducted between November 2014 and June 2016 with a group of 250 parents that consists of 125 mothers and 125 fathers babies of whom were staying in two Neonatal Intensive Care Units which are level-3 and level-2 in Adnan Menderes University Research and Application Hospital. Research data were collected through description forms about mothers, fathers and babies and Postpartum Parenting Behaviour Scale. During the data assesment, descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U-Test, Kruskal-Wallis, tests were used. According to study, score averages of mothers from Postpartum Parenting Behaviour Scale(PPBS) was higher than the score averages of fathers from PPBS. The score averages of mothers from PPBS was 3,76±1,86, but the score averages of fathers from PPBS was 2,98±1,79 and no statistically significant difference was detected between two groups. While the rates of behaviour factors "close contact, touching affectionately, speaking kindly and positive comment" was statistically higher among mothers than fathers, the rates of behaviour factor "happiness" was higher among fathers than mothers. Babies' diagnosis and sexes, the ages of mother and father, the family type, whether the parents want the baby or not, whether the mother really wants the pregnancy or not, duration of marriage, mother's occupation, father's occupation, educational status of mother and father, income states of mother and father, the neighborhood they live in, relationship status of parents with their spouses did not affect parenting behaviour. While the family in which the father of the newborn was raised did not affect the parenting behaviour, that mother being raised in a nuclear family affected parenting behaviour positively. Among some equipments attached to babies, vascular access affected the parenting behaviour positively but UVC and ETT affected parenting behaviour negatively. The weight, height and head circumference of the baby also affected parenting behaviour. Key Words: Parenting Behaviour, Newborn, Mother, Father, Postpartum Period