Abstract
The birth of a child with a congenital anomaly (CA) may have an impact on the familiar organization, disturbing affective aspects and the new dyad interaction. This study identified levels of stress, anxiety, depression, as well as the coping adopted by 25 mothers of babies with CA, admitted in three regional NICU. It was applied inventories for stress (ISSL), for anxiety (BAI) and for depression (BDI) and interview to identify coping strategies. Most of the sample (n = 12) was in the resistance level of stress, with moderate level of anxiety (n = 8), and mild (n = 7) and moderate (n = 7) levels of depression. Mothers reported, during this period, the use of positive adaptive coping strategies like Self-reliance and Support Seeking, and negative coping strategies like Delegation and Helplessness, which are associated with depression. It is suggested the adoption of interventions targeted to these mothers in order to reduce the impact created by the babies' condition and by their hospitalization.
Keywords:
stress; anxiety; depression; coping; malformations
