• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.84-102
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• 1998

In this study the levels and influencing characteristics of maternal identity and self confidence for caring the baby were identified during the immediate postpartum period. 114 primiparous women who delivered vaginally normal baby participated in the survey from August 1 to October 31, 1996. SD scale was to measure maternal identity which consisted of 11 items for mother and 6 items for baby. Likert scale was to measure self confidence for caring the baby (38 items). Cronbach's alphas for evaluating internal consistency as follows : .86 for maternal identity and .96 for self confidence scale for caring the baby. The study showed these results : 1. Mean score of maternal identity(82.03 : 52.65 for mother, 29.38 for baby) was considered relatively low. 2. Mean score of self confidence for caring the baby(113.91) was considered relatively low. 3. There were significant influencing characteristics of primiparous to maternal identity : age(total ; F=3.53, p=.0329, for mother ; F=2.60, p=.0719, for baby ; F=3.12, p=.0481), prenatal infant care preparation(total ; t=2.31, p=.0306, for mother ; F=2.62, p=.0160), knowledge about infant care during the hospitalization(for baby ; F=3.94, p=.02222), colostrum feeding(total ; t=1.95, p=.0541, for baby ; t=2.71, p=.0080), frequency of breast feeding during the hospitalization(for baby ; F=3.91, p=.0228)and feeding type after discharge(for baby ; F=3.18, p=.0456). 4. There were significant influencing characteristics of primiparous to self confidence for caring the baby : routine husband support(F=6.09, p=.0031), prenatal infant care preparation(t=2.04, p=.0574), knowledge about infant care during the hospitalization(F=3.15, p=.0467), education of breast feeding during the hospitalization(t=-1.79, p=.0850). 5. Correlation between maternal identity and self confidence for caring the baby was r=.37608(p=.0001). This study implies that special education programs for primipara are needed. For the future, this study suggest that maternal role variables need to be monitored through the home visiting follow up. Also intervention programs related to prenatal care, discharge education, home visiting follow up need to be developed and then evaluated their effectiveness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.475-483
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• 1995

This study was undertaken to determine factors associated with infant feeding practices among highly educated Korean mothers living in Texas, USA and local populations. In both groups, infant's birth order, maternal age, prenatal education, husband's attitude, mother's attitude and infant's taking a bottle to bed were not associated with infant's feeding patterns significantly. However, there was a significant difference in initiating time for introduction of supplementary foods between Koreans and Americans. Thus Korean mothers introduced supplementary foods earlier than American counterparts. Furthermore the infant's feeding method among all participants affected the time for introducing supplementary foods significantly. Though attitude of Korean mothers toward breastfeeding was slightly more positive than that of American mothers, the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in Koreans was much lower than that in Americans. It might be suggested that effective nutrition education program for Korean subjects should be developed to practice breastfeeding from positive attitude and knowledge. It might be also suggested that participation of prenatal nutrition education involving fathers should be encouraged for promotion of rates of initiation and duration of exclusive breastfeeding of mothers.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.173-191
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• 1991

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between infants' crying associated with their temperament and mothers' subjective responses to their crying. The subjects were 212 mothers and their 4- to 8-month-old infants living in Seoul, Korea. RITQ and EASI were administered to mothers. Mothers' perceptions of tape recordings of infants' crying were recorded. The data were analyzed by t-test and ${\chi}^2$ test. The main results were that (1) infant's temperament could be divided into five groups: the easy, the intermediate-low, the intermediate-high, the difficult, and the slow-to-warm up infant groups. The more negatively emotional and impulsive the mother's temperament, the more difficult was the infant's temperament. (2)The crying of the difficult infants was perceived more as an indication of major physical discomfort than that of the easy infants. (3)Both mothers of difficult and mothers of easy infants displayed differences in maternal interventions by type of infant cries: cries of difficult infants elicited more maternal intervention of "soothing" or "picking up" than those of easy infants. On the other hand, cries of easy infants elicited more maternal intervention of "playing with toy" and "leaving him alone, if possible" than those of difficult infants.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.33-46
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• 1997

This article reports the developmental stability of individual differences in children's attachment qualities with their mothers and the relations between the preschoolers' attachment security to mothers and maternal parenting behavior. 24 infants were observed with mothers in the Strange Situation to assess the infant-mother attachment patterns at 16 months of age. After 3 years, attachment security was assessed using Attachment Q-Set, and the modified IPBI (Iowa Parent Behavior Inventory: Mother Form) was administered to mothers to assess their parenting behavior. Analyses revealed significant differences in children's attachment security scores by infancy attachment patterns. That is 11 of 12 children's attachment to mothers qualities were stable across the 3 year periods. The attachment security scores related positively to the responsive maternal parenting behavior. Changes in child-mother attachment quality over time were related to maternal responsiveness. Collectively, these findings were consistent with predictions from attachment theory.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.38-60
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• 1989

The present analysis was undertaken to find out the relationships between birth weight & Apgar Score of newborn infant & maternal factors. The medical records of 1436 newborn infants who had been at the Korea University III Seoul from January. 1.1984. to December. 31. 1985, were examined. Measurements include weight and Apgar Score. As the possible factors influencing the birth weight & Apgar Score of newborn infant, 9 variables such as : mother's age, frequency ·of pregnancy, frequency of fullterm delivery, frequency. of premature, frequency of abortion, mother's hemoglobin level, complications during pregnancy gestational period and infant sex at birth were selected among the items recorded in the medical records of newborn infants and their mothers. The weight & Apgar Score of newborn infants were compared separately by sex with group percent of those variables. The results were summarized as follows: 1. All of those factors chosen are supposed to be influencing upon the birth weight and Apgar Score examined at birth indirectly through inducing early termination of pregnancy. 2. The most influencing variable of birth weight of newborn infants was gestation period. The most influencing variable of Apgar Score of infant newborn was gestation period. 3. The relationships of those influencing factors are more clear on the birth weights of newborn than on the Apgar Score. 4. More then half of low birth weight infants are turned out to be physiologically normal through the evaluation by Apgar Scoring. Conclusively, All of those factors chosen are supposed to be influencing upon the birth weight and apgar score examined at birth indirectly through inducing early termination of pregnancy.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.639-644
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• 2014

Congenital malaria is assumed to be a risk factor for infant morbidity and mortality in endemic areas like Maumere, Indonesia. Infected infants are susceptible to its impact such as premature labor, low birth weight, anemia, and other unspecified symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of congenital malaria and the influence of mother-infant paired parasite densities on the clinical outcome of the newborns at TC Hillers Hospital, Maumere. An analytical cross sectional study was carried out in newborns which showed criteria associated with congenital malaria. A thick and thin blood smear confirmed by nested PCR was performed in both mothers and infants. The association of congenital malaria with the newborn's health status was then assessed. From 112 mother-infant pairs included in this study, 92 were evaluated further. Thirty-nine infants (42.4%) were found to be infected and half of them were asymptomatic. Infected newborns had a 4.7 times higher risk in developing anemia compared to uninfected newborns (95% CI, 1.3-17.1). The hemoglobin level, erythrocyte amount, and hematocrit level were affected by the infants' parasite densities (P<0.05). Focusing on newborns at risk of congenital malaria, the prevalence is almost 3 times higher than in an unselected collective. Low birth weight, anemia, and pre-term birth were the most common features. Anemia seems to be significantly influenced by infant parasite densities but not by maternal parasitemia.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.373-385
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• 2005

This study was carried out to investigate the lactation and weaning practice of infants and their mothers' attitude on infant nutrition. We interviewed 152 mothers in three pediatric clinics located in Sokcho city. From this survey, $76.3\%$ of infants was fed colostrum milk during first one week of life. During the first 4 months, $31.6\%$ of infants was fed breast-milk, while $42.8\%$ of them was fed bottled-milk. More housewives fed their babies with breast milk than the working mothers. Infants ate first weaning food at 5.73$\pm$1.86 months of life. Highly educated mothers showed positive response to the questionnaire : Breast-feeding is good for baby but it requires mother's sacrifice, and Breast-feeding may ruin the good shape of mothers. Highly income mothers responded negatively to the statement : Breast-feeding is not a must for infants since bottled-milk is a good substitution for breast-milk. Comparing with the mothers whose income was about 1 -2 million won per month, with ones who got paid less than 1 million won per month the former responded positively to : Breast-feeding is good for baby but it requires mother's sacrifice. Mothers recognized the importance of weaning in the following order : Supply of nutrition, Enforcement of digestion and absorption capability, Variety of taste, Disease prevention, Development of self-reliance, and Development of baby tooth. To improve the infants' nutritional status, education program on infant nutrition should be organized and run for the pregnant and lactating women in obstetrician and pediatric clinics and through the mass media as well.

• Korean Parent-Child Health Journal
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics and influencing factors of the attachment-oriented caretaking behaviors among the mothers with infants. The total number of 204 mothers participated in this survey as subjects. They all were breast-feeding mothers who had their infants joining in the semi-final round of a healthy breast-feeding infant contest. The data were collected from July 14, 1999 to May 19, 2000. And the data were analyzed by SPSSWIN 10.0 version. The result of this study was as follows ; 1. The mean ages of the subjects were 29.5 and 95.6 percents of them were no-job housewives. 57.8% of them were normal delivery. And the mean months of the infants were 6.2 and the male infants were 57.4%. The first born babies were 62.3%. 2. The mothers are affirmative enough with their attachment-oriented caretaking behaviors (the total mean was $3.58{\pm}.631$). In general, the mothers showed very attachment-oriented caretaking behaviors, but the points that indicated "recording the development characteristics of the infant and discussing them with husband" were very low(score $2.79{\pm}.982$). 3. There are Significant differences in caretaking behaviors of the mothers according to their ages(F=3.497, p=.017), the degree of morning sickness(F=2.633, p=.050) and the birth order of their infants(F=4.854, p=.003). The older mothers and mothers who experienced the less morning sickness showed the higher scores of the attachment-oriented behaviors. The mothers who experienced the more deliveries showed the higher scores of the attachment-oriented behaviors. Accordingly, the above result suggests that the systematic and practical nursing intervention to encourage the attachment-oriented behaviors is essential to the younger, primipara mother.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.546-550
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• 2008

In this untreated classic phenylketonuria (PKU) case, mental retardation is severe; however, there have been individuals- like the mother of this case- who have escaped mental retardation and all the other potential sequelae of phenylketonuria, despite having high blood phenylalanine levels, and very poor dietary control. It appears that they have nearly normal brain phenylalanine levels despite high blood phenylalanine (Phe) levels. A number of studies have now demonstrated considerable variability in blood vs. brain phenylalanine levels in phenylketonuria patients. Outcome of phenylketonuria appears to be related to brain phenylalanine levels. We report a case of "undiagnosed" maternal phenylketonuria syndrome. A female infant had low birth weight (2,400 g) with microcephaly. We examined her family and discovered that her mother was an undiagnosed phenylketonuria patient with a borderline intelligence quotient (IQ). The infant's sister, six years old, was diagnosed with phenylketonuria at the age of four years was mentally retarded and had received an operation for cleft lip and palate. the sister had also had a low birth weight (2,300 g). Her sister and mother were compound heterozygotes (mother: R243Q/Y325X; sister: Y325X/P407S). The infant and father were heterozygous carriers (baby: R243Q/ -; father: P407S/ - ).

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.231-239
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• 2006

Purpose: This study was done to investigate differences in maternal role confidence and parenting stress according to the infant's feeding method. Method: The participants were 257 mothers of infants aged 5$\sim$7 months. 145 breast-feeding mothers and 112 bottle-feeding mothers participated. The Maternal Role Confidence Scale and Parenting Stress Index(PSI) were used. Results: The score of maternal role confidence of breast-feeding mothers (3.28) was significantly higher than that of bottle-feeding mothers(2.84). In addition, the parenting stress level of breast-feeding mothers(1.80) was lower than that of bottle-feeding mothers(2.97). However, the scores of maternal role confidence and the parenting stress level were not different according to the mother's and infant's personality characteristics. There was a significant negative correlation between the score of maternal role confidence and parenting stress levels(r=-.55, p<.001). Conclusion: Breast feeding mothers had more confidence of their maternal role, and a lower parenting stress level. Therefore, nurses must encourage infant mothers to breast feed since it is the best option for mothers as well as infants.