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ACADEMIA Letters Mother self-efficacy to care a preterm infant and COVID-19 pandemic Claudia silveira viera, Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná Beatiz Rosana Gonçalves de Oliveira Toso, Unioeste, Paraná, Brazil Gicelle Galvan Machineski, Unioeste, Paraná, Brazil Luana Rocha Cecília, Unioeste, Parana, Brazil Introduction When organizing to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health services have changed the functioning of their units. In this sense, studies should be carried out in real time, so that more is known about how to develop the routine work of the health units in the presence of this new virus. Among these services are NICU, where mothers and their newborn children meet for different reasons, the most common being prematurity. In this context, in addition to the repercussions for preterm infants resulting from prematurity and the period that newborns remain hospitalized, there are consequences of this situation for the family, especially for parents and the development of healthy parenting. During the NICU hospitalization, family members’ feelings are generally negative, such as sadness, fear and anguish for being an environment, which for parents is suggestive of death (SILVA et al., 2016). Thus, nowadays faced to the COVID-19 pandemic some routine tasks changed in the unit, especially for mothers, who ones stay major time during the preterm infant hospitalization. Beyond this routine changes, the mother is facing negative feelings about the babies survival and the pandemic situation contributes to increase these feelings. Even with all the anxieties that family members experience, the attitudes of health professionals, especially nursing, are paramount, since they provide support for parents to be able to Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Claudia silveira viera, clausviera@gmail.com Citation: Silveira Viera, C., de Oliveira Toso, B.R.G., Machineski, G.G., Cecília, L.R. (2021). Mother self-efficacy to care a preterm infant and COVID-19 pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 2823. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2823. 1 create a bond with babies. In addition to assisting, the family in learning to care for preterm infants, in order to provide parents with self-confidence, that is, to make them feel that they are capable to do it (SANTOS et al., 2014). This ability of an individual to perform certain activities called self-efficacy (BANDURA, 1997). Therefore, the objective in our study was to apprehend the perception of mothers of preterm infants admitted to the NICU about their self efficacy for their baby care. Method This is a qualitative study with a descriptive approach. Data collection took place through interviews with mothers of preterm infants admitted to the NICU at a university hospital in the municipality of Western Paraná, from August to November 2020. The mother who participated in the study respected the follow criteria: to be 18 years old or more; without health mental disease, the preterm infant need to be hospitalized for the minimum 7 days in the NICU and do not have any malformation. The participants were selected by drawing lots from the list of hospitalizations in the period of data collection. In this way, mothers with preterm infants of different gestational ages (GA) could be contemplated. From the hospitalization list, newborns were grouped according to the degree of prematurity: extreme premature (less than 28 weeks of GA), very premature (28 to 32 weeks of incomplete GA), moderate premature (32 to 34 weeks of GA) and late preterm (34 to 36 weeks of GA). They participated in-depth interviews, following a COVID-19 preventive protocol rules. So, 10 mothers of preterm infants were interviewed, respecting the ethical guidelines for human being research. Data analysis were based on thematic content analysis. The interviews were conducted by the guiding questions “How do you feel about taking care of your child here at the NICU? How do you think it will be taken care of when you get home? ”, As the interview was recorded on audio, on a Samsung J5 Prime cell phone and held in a reserved place during the mother visiting. The validation of the interview occurred shortly after its completion, in which the participant listened to her interview and validated its content. Results Three thematic categories emerged: being a mother of preterm infant during the pandemic; meaning care and, building self-efficacy for care. The participants were between 21 and 32 years old, mostly lived with a partner and had attended at least 8 years of study. It was apprehended that mothers perceive their self-efficacy for the care associated with the love for Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Claudia silveira viera, clausviera@gmail.com Citation: Silveira Viera, C., de Oliveira Toso, B.R.G., Machineski, G.G., Cecília, L.R. (2021). Mother self-efficacy to care a preterm infant and COVID-19 pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 2823. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2823. 2 their child, the need to protect them, the importance of guaranteeing food, for example. It was observed that feelings of love, hope, the presence of family support and the understanding of their maternal role as essential were protective aspects for maternal self-confidence and, consequently, for self-efficacy in care. The interviewees reported the meaning of care for them occurred when avoiding taking contamination to their children, at a time when the world is experiencing a Covid-19 pandemic, it is a very legitimate concern. In addition to being able to withdraw breast milk for be sent to the NICU and subsequently guarantee the social interaction with other people to be discharged from hospital. While the feelings of fear, uncertainty and the perception of the preterm infant as fragile were factors that hinder, the construction of their self-efficacy in child care. It is observed that self-confidence is associated with understanding the meaning of care for them, since the development of parenting and self-efficacy will occur positively if there are opportunities to provide care and will be impaired without knowledge of what is conceptualized as care. Conclusion Thus, mothers’ self-confidence in caring for their children is associated with what they understand as care and the feelings experienced with prematurity. The development of parenting and self-efficacy will occur in an appropriate way when there is the opportunity to perform care and experience positive feelings, as well as it will be hampered by the lack of awareness of the concept of care, of opportunities to care and in the face of negative feelings. In this study, understanding how mothers feel prepared during the hospitalization of the PTNB to care for them and understanding how self-confidence can influence self-efficacy and healthy parenting was essential for the nursing team to plan the care for the preterm and his mother in changes required by the COVID-19 pandemic. References BANDURA, A. Self-efficacy, the exercise of control. New York: Freeman and Company, 1997. SANTOS, N. D. dos et al. The empowerment of preterm infants’ mothers in the hospital context. Rev. enferm. UERJ., v. 22, n. 1, p. 65-70, jan./fev., Rio de janeiro, 2014. SILVA, R. M. M. et al. Vivências de famílias de neonatos prematuros hospitalizados em unidade de terapia intensiva neonatal: revisão integrativa. Rev. enferm. Cent.-Oeste. Min., v. 6, n. 2, p. 2258-2270, mai./ago., 2016. Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Claudia silveira viera, clausviera@gmail.com Citation: Silveira Viera, C., de Oliveira Toso, B.R.G., Machineski, G.G., Cecília, L.R. (2021). Mother self-efficacy to care a preterm infant and COVID-19 pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 2823. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2823. 3