Abstract
The change in the medical payment system has shortened postpartum hospitalization, limiting the time for nursing staff to provide care and education. In Taiwan, many postpartum women choose “doing the month” in postpartum nursing care centers with professional support. However, leaving these centers often increases maternal stress as they transition to independent caregiving, impacting their confidence and sleep quality. Additionally, difficulties in establishing infants’ sleep patterns further disrupt maternal sleep. To address these challenges, the maternal-infant telecare program was introduced to provide continued support after discharge. To explore the effectiveness of the maternal-infant telecare program on postpartum women’s confidence, sleep quality, and infants’ sleep quality. A cross-sectional research design was used in this study. Eighty-two postpartum women were recruited from a postpartum nursing care center in Northern Taiwan. Data were gathered at three separate time points (pretest, Posttest 1, Posttest 2). All statistical tests were performed using the SPSS 24 software. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, and Generalized Estimating Equation. A total of eighty-two postpartum women were recruited through convenience sampling. The results of this study showed that after the intervention, postpartum confidence increased from an average of 43.99 to 51.72, postpartum sleep quality improved from 23.35 to 19.33, and the number of infants’ nighttime awakenings, as reported by postpartum women, reduced from an average of 2.77 to 1.12 at twelve weeks. The maternal-infant telecare program demonstrated potential benefits in enhancing postpartum women’s confidence, improving sleep quality, and reducing the frequency of infants’ nighttime awakenings. Therefore, the program merits further promotion and broader application in postpartum care.
Data availability
Data available on request due to restrictions regarding privacy, legal and ethical concerns. The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.
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Acknowledgements
The authors convey their sincere gratitude to the postpartum participants at the Infancix Postpartum Nursing Care Center for their invaluable cooperation and insights. We are also indebted to the staff and colleagues at the center for their steadfast support and administrative assistance, which provided a conducive environment for the successful completion of this study. Furthermore, we wish to acknowledge the constructive feedback and professional guidance provided by the editorial board members—including Assistant Editor Dr. Muskan Kumari, Dr. Shivani Monde, Dr. Shamitha Ramesh, and Dr. Lisa Steurer—along with the anonymous reviewers of Scientific Reports. Their scholarly recommendations have been instrumental in significantly enhancing the quality of this manuscript.
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C.-Y. L. conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data analysis, and interpretation, and manuscript drafting. W.-S. H. and W.-Y. H. conceptualization, interpretation, supervision, manuscript review and editing. H.-L. H. methodology, data analysis and interpretation. K.-C. L. and W.-L. H. conceptualization and interpretation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The procedures employed in this study complied with the ethical standards of the relevant institutional and national research committees and adhered to the principles of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its subsequent amendments or equivalent ethical guidelines. This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Show Chwan Memorial Hospital under a Full Board determination (approval number: 1110102), with approval granted on January 12, 2022. All participants were fully informed about the study’s objectives, procedures, and their rights, and written informed consent was obtained prior to participation.
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Lai, CY., Ho, WS., Liu, KC. et al. Effects of a maternal–infant telecare program on postpartum maternal confidence and sleep quality of mothers and infants. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-41565-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-41565-5
