Maternal self-efficacy in newborn care: influence of maternal variables

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Catarina Sousa
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Brandão, Sónia, Azevedo, Ana Rita, Prata, Ana Paula
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/47080
• topic: Breastfeeding; Mothers; Newborn; Parenting; Postnatal care; Self-efficacy

Aim: To analyze the influence of sociodemographic, obstetric, childbirth, and breastfeeding variables on maternal self-efficacy in newborn care. Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Methods: The study was conducted in three hospital units in the Northern region of Portugal, with a non-probabilistic sample composed of 340 women recruited at postnatal wards on the day of hospital discharge. A questionnaire including the mother’s sociodemographic, obstetric, childbirth, and breastfeeding data was used. For the analysis of maternal self-efficacy in newborn care, the Scale of Perceived Parental Self-Efficacy in Child Care was used. The scale is a 20-item self-report instrument developed to identify women with low levels of self-efficacy in newborn care. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Results: Significant differences concerning maternal self-efficacy in newborn care were found with regard to level of education and parity, with multiparous women and women with lower levels of education presenting higher levels of self-efficacy in newborn care. Conclusion: The analysis of these variables could be valuable in building new knowledge to support the development of an action model that would allow at-risk women to be highly confident in their parenting role.