The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of COS versus TAU in mothers with mental disorder and their infants in promoting attachment security in the child under standard clinical outpatient conditions.
Maternal mental health care is a neglected area in low and middle income countries (LAMIC) such as South Africa, where maternal and child health care priorities are focused on reducing maternal and infant mortality and promoting infant physical health.
With respect to this difficulty, the results of this study showed the nursing staff took certain actions to facilitate the mother-child relationship such as encouraging contact between the mother and her baby, supporting different ways of bringing her closer to the infant, and promoting informal conversations that allowed the mothers to talk about their difficulties.
All women in this study had received advice on HIV and infant feeding promoting exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of the child's life.
Topics covered included maternal sleep hygiene, strategies for increasing opportunities for maternal sleep, maternal relaxation techniques, acknowledgement of the challenges of parenting and sleep deprivation, information on infant sleep structure and interpreting infant cues, strategies for infant sleep promotion, and strategies for promoting infant night-day entrainment and self-soothing (box 1).
While guidance about what and when to feed infants is provided, little evidence-based direction is given on how to feed infants to promote subsequent healthy eating habits, including the aforementioned sensitive feeding styles, as well as feeding practices that promote acceptance of healthy foods and flavors in our obesogenic environment.
So it also encourages Kangaroo care, a technique practiced on newborn, especially pre-term infants, which promotes skin-to-skin contact to keep the baby warm and facilitate breastfeeding and bonding.
In our study, a total of 73.2% of participants agreed that infant walkers promote independent walking in infants.
Finally, mothers perceived that breastfeeding their infants would promote bonding.
Parents accompanied their infants to promote optimal performance during assessment with the PDMS-2.
