Abstract â–¡ 55

Background: Home apnoea/bradycardia monitoring is frequently used in the management of infants believed to be at risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Despite thorough instruction and counselling it can, however, impose substantial stress on families. Thus we wanted to assess the parents' subjective experience with the monitor.

Patients and methods: 151 parents (University Children's Hospital n=99; G.v. Preyer Children's Hospital n=52) reported retrospectively their experience with home monitoring. They filled out questionnaires consisting of 38 items concerning handling of the monitor, impact of home monitoring upon family life and parent-child relations and evaluation of instruction and counselling. 41.7% of the children were born prematurely.

Results: Approximately 50% of the children were monitored for half a year, the remaining 50% for a year. 84.0% of the parents felt it was easy to operate the monitor, 24.8% reported alarms. 70.2% felt disturbed by the monitor during night sleep. 53% of the parents described their relationship to the baby to be protective and caring as well as generous and supporting. Only 19.2% thought their baby to be at risk for SIDS. 70.2% of the parents were occasionally anxious about their baby while using the monitor. More than 80% felt calmer using the monitor and would use it again with their next child.

The satisfaction of the parents with service at the SIDS outpatient clinics was clearly correlated to the calming effect of the monitor (p=.022). Significant correlations were also found between a protective and supporting relationship and anxiety about the baby (p=.015). Easy handling of the monitor and less false alarms were significantly correlated (p=.000).

Discussion: Among this group many parents described themselves as anxious, tense and stressed. Some parents felt calmed by using a home monitor and most felt content with instruction, counselling and personal conversation. As monitoring can also impose substantial stress on families it should only be recommended in indicated cases. We feel that parents who report their relations to the baby to be tense and anxious should receive psychological counselling and guidance in baby watching, but not a home monitor.