Increasing Mothers’ Confidence and Abilities with Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment (COPE): A Randomized, Controlled Trial

Objective:Premature neonates are at great risk for cerebral palsy, developmental delays, hearing problems and visual impairments. Interventions to reduce the morbidities and adverse health outcomes in these neonates and improve parent-infant interaction are highly important. This study was conducted to determine the effect of the Creating Opportunitiesf or Parent Empowerment (COPE) program on the perceived mat ernal parenting self-efficacy of premature parentsMaterials and Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial with equal randomization (1:1:1 for 3 groups) and parallel group design. Forty-five preterm neonates were randomly allocated into treatment (n=15), supervision (n=15), and control (n=15) groups. COPE program was provided for a 4-phase educational-behavioral intervention program to the treatment and supervision groups. Primary outcome was parental self-efficacy, which was assessed with the Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy. All measurements were taken before and after completion of the study with the valid equipment and by the blind assessors.Results: COPE mothers reported significantly stronger beliefs regarding their parental role and have more confidence to their ability in caring of neonates compared with control mothers (P-value <0.001).Conclusion: An educational-behavioral intervention program would strengthen mothers’ beliefs and knowledge about their neonates and would remove barriers to enhance their ability for caring of neonates and enhance parent-infant interaction.