REWARMING PRETERM INFANTS ON A HEATED, WATER FILLED MATTRESS

Sixty low birthweight infants (1000-2000 g) admitted to a neonatal care unit in Turkey were studied. Those not requiring intensive care were randomly assigned for treatment either in a cot on a heated, water filled mattress kept at 37 degrees C (n = 28) or in air heated incubators with a mean air temperature of 35 degrees C (n = 32). On admission 53 (88.3%) of the infants had body temperatures between 30 degrees and 36 degrees C. There was good correlation between axillary and rectal temperatures in the infants while they were hypothermic. Normal temperatures were achieved within the first day and remained within this range during the subsequent days after admission in all the infants treated on the heated, water filled mattress, whereas they were not achieved until three days later in the incubator group. The neonatal mortality among those treated on the heated, water filled mattress was 21%, and among those treated in the incubator 34%. The heated, water filled mattress provides a good alternative to skin to skin contact with the mother, and to the use of a complex and expensive incubator for rapidly attaining and maintaining normal temperatures in the low birthweight newborn

MOTHERS PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR PRETERM INFANTS TREATED IN AN INCUBATOR OR ON A HEATED WATER-FILLED MATTRESS - A PILOT-STUDY

Ten Swedish and 23 Turkish mothers delivering premature infants with a birth weight of less than 2000 g were investigated concerning their attitudes and feelings towards their newborn babies when the infants were treated either in an air-heated incubator or on a heated water-filled mattress (HWM). The first interview took place during the first few days after delivery and the second interview in the case of the Swedish study two weeks later and in the Turkish study one week later. In the first interview, feelings of fear, unreality and insecurity predominated, although significantly more so among the mothers of the incubator group. These feelings had changed strikingly by the time of the second interview among the mothers whose infants were treated on the HWM, but persisted to a large extent among the mothers whose infants remained in an incubator. The results of both investigations indicate that the mothers' perceptions of their infants improves when the prematurely born infant is treated on an HWM instead of in an incubator