ABSTRACT
This study was designed to investigate effects of maternal education using Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale(the following will be marked as NBAS) on the mother-infant interaction and infant behavior. The subjects of this study consisted of 48 pairs of normal mother and infant, 24 pairs for intervention group and 24 pairs for control group. The subjects were recruited from two general hospitals, and an OBGY clinic located in J city. The data were collected from July 30, 2001 to October 6, 2001. Prior to investigation and data collection, following operational hypotheses were set up in order to compare the investigative data against these operational hypotheses(H). H1: Intervention group will higher mother-infant interaction score than control group. H2: Intervention group infants will higher overall performance in infant behavior test score than control group infants. The results of this study were summarized as follows: 1. The mother-infant interaction score was 59.79 points in intervention group and 53.91 points in control group. The mother-infant interaction score of intervention group showed significant difference than control group. Therefore, hypothesis 1 was supported. 2. The infant behavior score of intervention group was significantly higher than control group, but partially. Therefore, hypothesis 2 was partially supported. 1) The social interaction(orientation) score was 46.58 points in intervention group and 43.50 points in control group. The orientation score of intervention group showed significant difference than control group. 2) The state regulation score was 26.79 points in intervention group and 25.33 points in control group. The state regulation score of intervention group showed significant difference than control group. In conclusion, present work demonstrated that maternal education using NBAS is an effective intervention method for promotion of mother-infant interaction and of infant behavior development. Author believes that many inexperience young mother may find NBAS-based maternal education beneficial for their nursing babies, therefore NBAS-based intervention is recommended to be adopted routinely as an integral part of neonatal nursing strategies.