Introduction:Every pregnant mother wants their baby to be born in normal and healthy condition. Therefore, it would become a stressful event that might cause psychological distress or even emotional crisis in mother, when their infants are premature and low birth weight born.
Methodology:A cross-sectional study to investigate the psychological well being of mothers with low birth weight infants admitted to the SCN. It was conducted on one hundred and thirty (n=130) of mothers who delivered their babies at labor room, HRPZ II, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) score were used. Data were analyzed using the Chi-square tests. Statistically significant with p-value < 0.05.
Results:There was statistically significantly association between maternal age and anxiety (χ²=22.106, p=0.036) and maternal age and stress (χ²=17.509, p=0.041) by using chi square test. There was no significant association between maternal age and depression (χ²=10.37, p=0.321). The results showed that there was no statisticalsignificancebetween maternal education, maternal occupation and family income with depression, anxiety and stress of mothers (p>0.05).
Conclusion:Based on the finding in this study, most of the respondents have anxiety compared to depression and stress. Therefore, a nurse must have knowledge and skills, especially in terms of psychology, in handling cases related to the mother who have given birth to a low birth weight (LBW) child because of parting with their children due to the relatively long hospitalization.