The types of coping behaviour of mothers of infants (1-12 months old) with CHD hospitalized for surgical treatment

The increasing role of psycho-social rehabilitation in the world and domestic medicine enhances the interest to the problems of psychological adaptation and coping with the situation of hard disease. The advanced methods of surgical treatment of congenital heart defects (CHD) and improved post-operation care have reduced significantly the death-rate from CHD, but have raised the necessity to study the role of psychological factors in the perioperative period of children with CHD and adaptation of their parents to the hard situation of surgical treatment because of the death-related risk. The influence of mother’s emotional state on psychological well-being of the child is especially great during the first year of the child’s life. Many researches show that mother’s depression has a negative impact on the cognitive and emotional development of the infant. [1]. The aim of our research is to study the emotional state (level of depression and anxiety, attitude towards the CHD etc.) and the types of coping behavior of mothers of hospitalized infants with CHD in the period of surgical treatment. We have shown that mother’s depression has negative impact on mother-infant interaction and aggravates the retardation in physical and mental development of infants. We have identified the main types of coping strategies of mothers of infants with CHD having surgical treatment: acceptance, planning, and active coping.