With an increasing trend toward low birth rates and premature births, the importance of managing the health of high-risk infants has received constant emphasis. It is necessary to establish a family-centered care culture in neonatal intensive care units where high-risk infants are hospitalized. This study is intended to examine the current status of family-centered care and the direction of the role played by healthcare professionals, focusing on the characteristics of high-risk infants and their families. Healthcare professionals should listen to the needs of the family and facilitate their involvement to improve the performance of family-centered care and systematic support. Specific guidelines are required to strengthen the competence and leadership of healthcare professionals. The paradigm shift toward family-centered care for high-risk infants is a challenge for healthcare professionals and parents, but it will serve as a vision and strategy to improve the health of high-risk infants and their families by including the family in the healthcare process.

Purpose: This study has sought to determine the levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and attachment among fathers raising high-risk infants and to identify the factors influencing paternal attachment. Methods: The participants were 85 fathers who were raising high-risk infants aged 6 months or younger and visiting a general hospital in Busan Metropolitan City. A structured questionnaire was administered to collect information on the general characteristics of fathers and children, PTSD, depression, and attachment. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to identify the factors associated with paternal attachment. Results: The average scores reported by fathers were as follows: 4.68±0.27 out of 5 for attachment, 19.51±15.40 out of 88 for PTSD, and 13.21±10.07 out of 60 for depression. Among fathers, 29.4% and 20% experienced PTSD and depression, respectively. The first model revealed that the use of a ventilator, the age of the infant, and desired sex of the infant were associated with paternal attachment, predicting 30% of the variance. In the second model, in which PTSD and depression were added, PTSD influenced paternal attachment. This model predicts a 52% variance. Conclusion The formation of paternal attachment, which begins immediately after a child’s birth, plays a crucial role in a child’s cognitive, emotional, and social development. To enhance the attachment of fathers raising high-risk newborns, neonatal nurses should screen fathers for PTSD early and plan appropriate interventions.

Purpose: This study is intended to examine the difficulties facing mothers of young children (early childhood) and to understand the associated factors.Method: We analyzed 1,003 data items of women with children under age 2 who participated in a prenatal and early-childhood home visitation program in Seoul from 2016 to 2019. For our research, we used self-administered registration and service monitoring data. The difficulties the women faced as mothers were measured using the “Being a Mother Scale” (BaM-13). This analysis considered covariates including maternal and infant ages, their number of children, economic conditions, presence of disabilities, single motherhood, multicultural migration background, employment status, unintended pregnancy, instrumental and emotional support, and depression scores. Results: The average score for being a mother was 14.45 (standard deviation=6.61), and higher scores were recorded for women with spouses, Korean women (as opposed to multicultural immigrant women), women whose pregnancies were unplanned, women without instrumental support, and severely depressed women. Conclusion Motherhood poses great difficulties to women with children under age two. To help women transition from motherhood, it is important to understand their situations in relation to their social and psychological characteristics, as well as the cultural, social, and contextual perspectives they bring to motherhood.

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the tasks of midwives who lead natural childbirth in hospitals using the DACUM technique. Methods: Data were collected from 42 hospital midwives between August 23 to October 12, 2022, and the importance, frequency, and professional difficulty of hospital midwives' tasks were assessed. The collected data were analysed using the IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 22.0 program as the average and standard deviation for the importance, difficulty, and frequency of performance the analyzed tasks. The importance, difficulty, and frequency of performance each task were indicated as high, medium, or low,; furthermore, the importance and difficulty were multiplied and analyzed using the coefficient of determination.Result: Midwives’ tasks in natural childbirth in hospitals were classified into 8 duties, 138 tasks, and 49 task elements. Duties were classified into ‘before childbirth,’ ‘during childbirth,’ ‘after childbirth,’ ‘management of high-risk pregnant women,’ ‘goods management,’ ‘administrative work,’ ‘self-development,’ and ‘newborn care.’ The most important and difficult tasks with the highest coefficient of determination were performing neonatal resuscitation if necessary (11.25), transporting and managing emergency patients (10.46), requesting hospitals to transfer patients in case of emergency (10.43), and transferring patients to a tertiary hospital in case of maternal of neonatal emergency (10.30). Conclusion In this novel study in Korea, the role of a midwife in a hospital for natural childbirth were defined, and task according to duties were analyzed.

Purpose: This study analyzed factors that influence married women's intentions to have a second child from the perspective of reproductive health in Korea. Methods: The analysis included 332 married women whose first child birth was within the last 3 years from the 2021 National Family and Fertility Survey data. First, the general characteristics of married women was presented through frequency analysis. The differences in the characteristics of married women regarding their intention to have a second child were also analyzed using a chi-square test and independent samples t-test. Second, we analyzed the reproductive health characteristics of married women according to age using a chi-square test. Finally, logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the effect of married women's reproductive health factors on their intention to have a second child. Results: With various variables controlled, age, infertility, and negative pregnancy experiences had a negative effect on the intention to have a second child, whereas child values and trust in the government had a positive effect. In addition, differences in the reproductive health of married women were found according to age, and the proportions of infertility, negative pregnancy experiences, and preterm birth or low birth weight of the first child were high in elderly married women. Conclusion To alleviate the low fertility rate in terms of additional childbirth, it is necessary to combine and strengthen not only medical treatment related to women's reproductive health but also psychoemotional counseling as a non-medical treatment, with support from the government.

Purpose: This study evaluated changes in growth and nutritional status using the first basic and the second repeated surveys on children from North Korean refugee families who settled in South Korea. Methods: A total of 337 children were included in the survey. Using a structured questionnaire, the data collected included sex, date of birth, country of birth, date of entry to South Korea, and birth parents’nationality. The prevalence of stunting, underweight, wasting, and obesity were evaluated using the 2017 Korean National Growth Chart for Children and Adolescents. Results: The prevalence of stunting decreased from 7.9% in the first survey to 6.9% in the second survey; that of underweight decreased from 6.0% to 4.7%; and that of wasting decreased from 6.3% to 3.5%; however, these changes were not statistically significant. The prevalence of obesity significantly increased from 8.0% to 13.2% in the first and second surveys, respectively (p=0.037). There was no significant difference in the prevalence of malnutrition according to the length of stay in South Korea or the children’s country of birth. However, the prevalence of obesity was significantly higher in children with longer lengths of stay and in those born in South Korea. Conclusion Although children from North Korean refugee families have settled in South Korea for a long time, the rate of malnutrition is still high, and the prevalence of obesity continuously increases.

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of e-health literacy, parenting stress, maternal role confidence on children’s health-promoting behaviors in mothers of infants and toddlers. Methods: The participants were 175 mothers of infants and toddlers. Data were collected from August 30 to September 24, 2022. The effects of e-health literacy, parenting stress, and maternal role confidence on children’s health-promoting behaviors in mothers of infants and toddlers were analyzed using multiple regression using IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 27.0. Results: Children’s health-promoting behaviors showed a significant positive relationship with e-health literacy and maternal role confidence, and negative relationship with children’s age and parenting stress. The factors affecting children’s health-promoting behaviors were e-health literacy, maternal role confidence, and children’s age, which explained 30.7% of the total variance in children’s health-promoting behaviors. Conclusion This study suggests including e-health literacy and maternal role confidence for improving children’s health-promoting behaviors in mothers of infants and toddlers.

Purpose: This study aimed to conduct a scoping review to understand how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected patients under infertility treatment. Methods: The 5 steps of the scoping review by Arksey and O’Malley were applied: (1) identifying the research question; (2) identifying relevant studies; (3) study selection; (4) charting the data; and (5) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. Using 2 databases (PubMed and Cochrane Library), studies on COVID-19 and infertility treatment were searched, and 13 articles were selected for analysis. Results: The studies were conducted in North America (5 articles), Europe (3 articles), Asia (2 articles), and other regions (3 articles). The academic fields of the published journals were primarily reproductive medicine (10 articles), followed by psychiatry and psychology (2 articles), and complementary medicine (1 article). Regarding the research topic, studies on stress and anxiety were the most common (7 articles), followed by pregnancy rates (3 articles), and pregnancy planning or treatment decisions (3 articles). The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on stress and anxiety of patients in 5 out of 7 articles, no changes in pregnancy rates in 3 out of 3 articles, and negative effects on pregnancy planning or treatment decisions in 2 out of 3 articles. Conclusion The results of this review suggest that evidence-based information on patients with infertility is needed to prevent unnecessary anxiety, stress, and treatment delays in the upcoming postpandemic transition period.