A comparison of mothers' concerns regarding the care-taking tasks of newborns with congenital heart disease before and after assuming their care.

This exploratory study sought to identify, during the newborn's hospitalization, mother's concerns regarding the care-taking tasks of their infants with congenital heart disease and to determine, 1 month subsequent to discharge, whether the mother's concerns had changed. The sample consisted of ten mothers of infants aged up to 2 months at the time of the first interview which was conducted in hospital. A second interview was conducted in the home of the subjects 1 month subsequent to discharge. The content of the responses to the interview questions was analysed and presented under the major headings of selected characteristics of the sample, developmental tasks of parenthood and selected maternal attributes. The largest number of concerns in both interviews related to the tasks of learning how to anticipate and to recognize the needs of the baby. A significant difference was found between the total number of concerns reported by each mother in the two interviews. There was an overall increase of 61%. Implications and recommendations are presented in light of the small non-random sample.