the effect of in-arms-holding by mothers on sleep-wake states disorders of preterm neonates in neonatal intensive care unit: a pilot study

background & aim : mother-infant separation is one of the main causes of sleep-wake states disorders in neonatal intensive care unit (nicu). the current study was conducted to investigate the effect of in-arms-holding by mothers on sleep-wake states disorders of preterm neonates. methods & materials : in a pilot study, through a semi-experimental pretest-posttest method, 35 preterm neonates with gestational age between 32 and 37 weeks and their mothers were selected from nicu of valiasr hospital, tehran, iran. data collection process was carried out using the behavioral states scale of newborn individualized developmental care and assessment program. sleep-wake states data were collected in three phases: 20 min before intervention, 70 min of intervention (mother holding), and 20 min after intervention. the collected data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (rm anova) and bonferroni test in the spss for windows 17.0. results : about 57% of neonates were male. the results of rm anova showed that there were significant differences between three phases of study in terms of deep sleep (p < 0.001, f = 20.400),light sleep (p < 0.001, f = 167.230), drowsiness (p < 0.001, f = 26.770), quietly awake (p < 0.001, f = 27.380) and crying (p = 0.001, f = 4.370), but there was no significant difference for actively awake. conclusion : holding the preterm neonates by their mothers seems to improve their sleep-wake states. medical and nursing staff in nicus and nurseries may be recommended to use this kind of care to prevent sleep and wake disorders of neonates.