The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on mental health and mindfulness in mothers of newborns with cystic fibrosis

Background

The birth of a child is always a beautiful experience for any family. With the birth of a sick baby, however, all wishes will be lost. The existence of a sick newborn, the loss of wishes, and the hardships, along with financial pressures, may have adverse effects on the family's mental health, especially the mother. In this regard, acceptance and commitment therapy can help mothers get rid of the thought that the newborn's illness will hurt his/her future.

Methods

The present study is quasi-experimental research in the pretest and posttest form that was performed with control groups and a one-month follow-up. Random sampling was used to recruit thirty mothers of newborn children with cystic fibrosis disorder under the auspices of the Iranian Pediatric Hospital. Subjects responded to the SCL-90 questionnaire and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) before and after the intervention, and one month later in the follow-up period. Acceptance and commitment therapy intervention was administered to the experimental group in 8 sessions (60–90 min each) for three weeks. The control group did not receive any interventions. Repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data.

Results

The results showed significant differences between the control and experimental groups in all facets of mindfulness toward the expected non-judgemental attitude and the mother's acceptance (p < 0.5).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that commitment-based therapy was effective. Therefore, this method can be used to raise the mindfulness and health of the mother having a newborn with cystic fibrosis.