Maternal Emotional State and Its Relation to the Risk of Child Development in Newborn Hearing Screening

Purpose: Compare the maternal emotional state and its relationship with risk for child development in dyads mother/baby originating from NAS program, considering the result in the first stage of NAS.

Method: The sample consisted of 169 newborns less than 4 months age, who performed the neonatal hearing screening (NHS) in a University Hospital and their mothers. They were distributed in control group: 84 children who presented results of “pass” in the NHS and study group: 85 children with result “fail.” The data collection occurred through an interview, application of Beck Anxiety Inventory and analyzing the mother-child interaction, through the Risk Indicators of Child Development Protocol (KUPFER, 2008).

Results: It was found that there was correlation between the NAS fails baby and alteration of IRDlS 1, 2, and 4. The mothers of infants who presented result “failure” in the NAS demonstrated with greater frequency anxiety levels between mild and moderate. However, levels of maternal depression were not associated with the result “failure” in the NAS. It was also observed an association between IRDI altered and the “fail” result in the NHS in anxious mothers (IRDI 2 and 5) or depressive (IRDI 4 and 5).

Conclusion: The condition of retest in NHS can become a risk to child development, viewed through IRDIS. Faced with this suggests the necessity of insertion of accompaniment public policies postnatal of mother and child health from the early stages, including NHS programs.