<![CDATA[Introduction & Aim: The birth of a premature infant who needs to be admitted to neonatal intensive care unit from birth impedes early communication and participation of mother in her infant’s care. The best way to prevent infant’s harm in hospital is to participate in the care of infant. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of empowerment program on the participation of mothers with premature infants admitted to neonatal intensive care unit of Sayyed Shirazi hospital in Gorgan, Iran. Materials and Methods: This study was a randomized clinical trial in 2018, which was conduct on a sample of mothers with premature infant who had randomly been divided into two intervention and control groups. The data collection tools were the Parents’ Participation Inventory designed by Melnick in 1994. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (tables, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-test, paired t-test and covariance) using SPSS-16 software. Results: There was no significant difference in the level of mothers’ participation in the care of their infants between the two groups before the intervention (p = 0.45). But after the empowerment training program, the results showed that mothers’ participation in the intervention group (19.10 ± 3.09) was higher than the control group (16.8 ± 2.01), (p = 0.01). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that implementation of empowerment training program increases mothers’ participation in the care of their premature infants. Early intervention and the use of written information along with the booklet will increase the mothers’ participation in the care of their infant.]]>
