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CCBY-NCSA_V3.0_US, Open Access
Thesis
The Differences in O2 Saturation Between Neonates of Abused and Non-Abused Women
Washington State University
Master of Nursing (MN), Washington State University
2007
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/3687
Abstract
This project addresses the issue of how abuse during pregnancy affects neonate's oxygen saturation in response to stressful situations. Intimate partner abuse has been shown to cause stress which releases cortisol and activates a biological response within the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Animal studies indicate maternal catecholamine elevations resulting in vasoconstriction of the uterine arteries (Franscisco, 1981). This in turn results in an altered stress response within the offspring. .However, there remains a paucity of information regarding specific indicators of altered stress responses in human neonates exposed to maternal abuse.
One non-invasive way of measuring stress in neonates is oxygen saturation. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a difference in mean oxygen saturation levels between neonates of abused versus non-abused mothers in response to a standardized stress of a routine PKU heel-stick. A factoral pretest/posttest design with comparison group was utilized with a sample of forty non-randomized neonates categorized into two groups. The results suggest a moderately statistically significant difference in oxygen saturations at 25-minutes post-stick between neonates from abused and non-abused mothers, although statistically significant differences were not noted at other time periods. Possible explanations for the limited statistically significant values could be the lack of a large enough sample or data collection error. Overall the evidence indicates that oxygen saturations, in combination with other physiological changes, may indicate altered stress responses. However further research is needed to provide more conclusive evidence in response to the posed research question.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- The Differences in O2 Saturation Between Neonates of Abused and Non-Abused Women
- Creators
- Kristin Townsend
- Contributors
- Angela Starkweather (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Research Projects, College of Nursing
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Nursing (MN), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Spokane, Washington
- Identifiers
- 99900590735801842
- Copyright
- http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis