Maternal Sleepiness and Risk of Infant Drops in the Postpartum Period

摘要

Background: An increase in infant drops on a postpartum unit prompted a quality improvement project to examine causesand formulate risk reduction strategies. Review of health records revealed that infant drops occurred more frequently whenmothers fell asleep holding infants.Methods: A prospective descriptive study was conducted with a convenience sample of 101 postpartum mother-infant dyads.Hourly assessments of maternal sleepiness using the Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS) and surveillance of patient rooms wereperformed during hospitalizations (N = 4,550 observations).Results: Mothers slept on average 3.7 hours/day (median = 5.0). Sleepiness followed an expected nighttime routine on postpartumday 1 regardless of when mothers arrived on the unit. Peak sleepiness was observed at 04:00 (mean SSS score = 5.3;standard deviation [SD] = 2.6), and mothers were most awake until 18:00 (mean SSS score = 1.9; SD = 1.7). No infant dropsoccurred during the project; however, 50 participants required at least one intervention or corrective action to address unsafesleep. Of 1,718 observations of mothers in bed with their infant, there were 35 instances (2.0%) where nurses observedmothers asleep holding their infant.Conclusion: Frequent observations of maternal sleepiness and infant environments may prevent infant drops and provide opportunitiesfor intervening with risk reduction strategies, including education on safe sleep for infants.