It is important to asess the risk factors of parenting and provide early intervention for promotion of the maternal caretaking ability. The purpose of the study was to identify the maternal burden of caretaking, the supporting and the educational need for the caretaking activities of the mother of infant. Sixty three mothers of infants who visited the wellbaby clinic of S university hospital and one health center during the period of November 1st, to 30th in 1996 comprised the subjects of this study.
Data were gathered through the instruments that were developed by researcher.
Statistical analysis of this study was used ANOVA and Pearson correlation.
The results were as follows : 1) The mean score of the maternal burden of caretaking was 22.06. The maternal burden of caretaking was significantly high in the mothers who had vaginal delivery compare with the mothers who had caeserean section and in the mothers who gave artificial feeding compare with the group of breast or mixed feeding.
2) The mean score of the support need for the caretaking activities was 30.69. The support need for the caretaking activities was significantly high in the mothers who had the second child, compare with the mothers who had first or third child. And the support need for the caretaking activities was significantly high in the mothers who had caretaking help compare with the mothers who had no caretaking help. The specific subjects of 'mother-infant interaction', 'immunization' and 'prevention of accident' on the support need for the caretaking activities were relatively high.
3) The mean score of the educational need of caretaking activities was 29.3. The educational need of caretaking activities was significantly high in the mother who had the second child compare with the mothers who had first or third child. And the educational need of caretaking activities was significantly high in the mothers who had caretaking help compare with the mothers who had no caretaking help. The specific subjects of 'mother-infant interaction', 'emergency care' and 'prevention of accident' on educational need of caretaking were relatively high.
4) The maternal burden of caretaking was not correlated with the support need or the educational need of caretaking activities. But the support need of caretaking activities was significantly correlated with the educational need of caretaking activities.
5) The support and educational need of caretaking activities were significantly high in the mothers who wanted home care for caretaking their infants.
Through the study, it was found that there is considerable maternal burden of caretaking as well as the support and educational need on the caretaking activities in the mothers whose child is young. Therefore developing the systematic and effective program is needed to meet the mother's need.
The results of this study will be useful resources to develop the program. On the other hand, it can be recommended that home health care will be one of the approach to support the mothers caretaking activities.
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