Maternal and infant conditions

Establishing reliability, usability, and validity of the Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale in a neonatal intensive care unit

Findings from the study will support the use of the Mother-to-infant-bonding scale (MIBS) in Australian NICU settings for preterm infants, as well as supporting further work to establish the MIBS as a screening tool to identify mothers with bonding difficulties.

Research overview

Early identification of difficulties in mother-to-infant bonding specific to the preterm context is important so that appropriate and timely interventions can be provided. Despite this importance, little is known about how to validly and reliably assess bonding difficulties experienced by mothers and their preterm babies in NICU.

The Mother-to-infant-bonding scale (MIBS) is an eight item self-reported survey that assesses a mother’s feelings towards her infant. The aim of this study is to test the MIBS for reliability, validity, and usability and acceptability in an Australian setting for mothers of preterm infants.

We will recruit 100 mothers of infants born between 28 and 34+6 weeks’ gestation, whose infants are admitted to the NICU at King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH).

We will establish usability, reliability, and validity of the MIBS in the neonatal intensive care setting at KEMH to assist nurses and midwives to identify mothers who may be at risk of bonding difficulties and provide support or referral as appropriate.

Findings from the study will support the use of MIBS in Australian NICU settings for preterm infants, as well as supporting further work to establish the MIBS as a screening tool to identify mothers with bonding difficulties. An appropriate pathway for referral would subsequently be developed in conjunction with stakeholders.