Acceptability and feasibility of a nursing intervention to promote sensitive mother-infant interactions in the NICU

The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the study design of a randomized controlled trial, and an experimental neonatal nursing intervention. A pilot parallel randomized controlled trial was conducted in a level-III NICU. Dyads of mothers and very preterm infants 27–32 weeks of gestational age. Twenty mother-preterm infant dyads were enrolled and randomized in a 1:1 ratio to the experimental group (n = 10) or standard care group (n = 10). The intervention encompassed weekly individual sessions where nurses guided mothers in interacting with sensitivity with their infant while providing care and positioning. Results show that the intervention was acceptable for mothers and feasible for intervention neonatal nurses, but some challenges related to recruitment and data collection were noted. A second pilot study to test adapted recruitment and data collection procedures should be conducted before a large-scale study. clinicaltrial.gov (NCT03677752). Registered on September 19, 2018.