The beauty salon as a resource during the follow-up care of mothers of newborns hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Introduction: The infant’s hospitalization at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is an unexpected event, which reflects especially on the mother’s routine as she accompanies the child away from the parent’s duties. This ensues an experience of a demanding and exhausting daily life with few opportunities for activities that minimize stress, inherent to the condition of having children in the NICU. Considering caretaking strategies offered to the baby, planning should be extended to the families, in order to promote health practices. Amongst developed strategies is a beauty salon for the mothers of babies in the NICU. Objective: To explore the mothers’ perception of the beauty salon’s use during the baby’s hospitalization in the NICU. Method: A qualitative study, conducted with 17 mothers of infants admitted to a NICU at a maternity hospital in Belo Horizonte / MG. The data was collected through a focus group, analyzed according to the content analysis. Results: The beauty salon strategy allows broadening of care offered to newborns and their mothers. When attending the salon, mothers perform meaningful self-care activities, as well as qualify how they perform those activities. The environment favors socialization and fosters feelings of well-being, self-esteem improvement and stress reduction. Conclusion: The study has allowed the perception of the mothers about the use of the beauty salon and thus identify the importance of this resource for this public, which can be incorporated by other health institutions. It is suggested that further studies should be done to complement this study