Please cite this article as: Seyedrasooli A, Malakouti J, Jabraeili M, Heykalabadi S, Ghogazadeh M. The effect of supportive program on anxiety of mothers of infants with gastrointestinal anomalies. Nursing Practice Today. 2020; 7(2):106-113 Nursing Practice Today Original Article The effect of the supportive program on the anxiety of mothers of infants with gastrointestinal anomalies 1 Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran 2 Department of Midwifery, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran 3 Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran 4 Woman's Reproductive Health Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Received 24 August 2019 Accepted 10 November 2019 Published 01 April 2020 Available online at: http://npt.tums.ac.ir Background & Aim: The birth of an abnormal infant and his admission to the intensive care unit creates various mental health effects on their mothers and increases their anxiety. The goal of this study was to determine the effect of supportive programs on the anxiety of mothers of infants with gastrointestinal anomalies. Methods & Materials: This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Tabriz, Iran. In this study, 50 mothers who had infants with gastrointestinal anomalies were assigned randomly to control and intervention groups. The control group received routine care, and the intervention group received special supportive care: emotional, informational, self-esteem, and caring support during four sessions for a 45-minute duration. Maternal anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Data were analyzed by using SPSS/19 and paired-sample and independent t-test. Results: The results showed that both groups of mothers had high-level anxiety in the pre- test. In the post-test, the mothers' anxiety level in the intervention group was significantly lower than the control group. ANCOVA test to compare the mean difference of state and trait anxiety in both groups showed that these changes were statistically significant (P<0.001). Conclusion: This study tried to introduce a protocol to protect mothers of gastrointestinal anomalies, which could be used in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The findings of this study also highlighted the importance of supporting one of the fundamental principles of family-centered care. Based on the outcomes of this research, emotional, informational, self- esteem, and caring support could reduce the mother’s anxiety. Key words: support; program; anxiety; mothers; infants; gastrointestinal anomalies Introduction 1 Most parents would like to have a baby, assuming they will have a healthy one, but in 3% of cases, there is a life-threatening anomaly (1). According to the World Health Organization, approximately 3 million infants are born annually with congenital disabilities (2). The systematic review by the Vatanxah (2017) shows the prevalence of anomalies in different cities of Iran, which varies from 0.4 percent in Babol to 5.5 percent in Zanjan (3). This prevalence in Tabriz (Iran) was 113 out of 10,000 births (4). *Corresponding Author: Mahnaz Jabraeili, Postal Address: Department of Pediatric, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. Email: jabraeilim@gmail.com After the birth of the infant with congenital disabilities, parents often experience sadness, stress, anxiety, depression, anger, and frustration due to the loss of a healthy infant (5-6). The results of the study’s Fonseca et al. (2012) show that parents of newborns with congenital anomalies experience a high level of anxiety and depression (7). Another study in Brazil demonstrated that most mothers with abnormal newborn, had a moderate level of anxiety; however, the anxiety levels were higher in mothers who had a diagnosis of postpartum anomalies (8). Parents’ anxiety and emotional stress are very overwhelming (9), and mothers experience more anxiety than fathers (7, 2,10). When the infant is hospitalized, due to incomplete information of parents about the Tehran University of Medical Sciences Volume 7, No 2, April 2020, pp. 106-113 Alehe Seyedrasooli 1 , Jamileh Malakouti 2 , Mahnaz Jabraeili 3 *, Soraya Heykalabadi 3 , Morteza Ghogazadeh