The Effect of Video Calls Held Between Preterm Babies Hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Their Mothers on the Amount of Breast Milk: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to investigate the effect of video calls held between preterm babies hospitalized in NICU and their mothers on the amount of breast milk. Methods: This study is a randomized controlled trial. This study was conducted in the NICU of Balıkesir Atatürk City Hospital between 15 April?01 October 2022. One hundred preterm infants and their mothers, 50 in video call and 50 in control groups, were included. Online video calls between the preterm infants and their mothers were held by using Zoom application as 10 minutes on every day of the week. The breast milk follow?up form was sent to the mothers over WhatsApp application and the mothers sent the form back to the researcher at the 7th day. As per the standard hospital protocol, mother who control group can visit their infants in NICU face?to?face two days a week and get information about their infants. Results: No statistically significant difference was determined between the video call group and the control group in terms of 7?day breastmilk amount; however, the breast milk of the mothers in the video call group increased more on the 7th day compared to the control group (p<.001). Conclusions: It was found that the amount of breast milk increased more in the mothers in the experimental group at the end of day 7 compared to the control group mothers. Preterm delivery is among the factors that lead to inadequate breast milk expression. NICU nurses can make use of virtual patient visit technology in order to increase the amount of breast milk in mothers. © 2024, Ataturk Universitesi. All rights reserved.