Table 1.
Mother and baby scales (MABS) and distribution of scores.
| MABS area of interest (abbreviations) | Description of measure | Mean | SD | Range (min-max) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | General categories | |||
| Alert-responsive (A-R) | Infant alertness, attentiveness and communicativeness with caregivers | 39.27 | 5.13 | 30.00 (16–46) |
| Unsettled-irregular (U-I) | Crying/fussing + regularity of eating, sleeping and elimination routines | 49.63 | 12.79 | 69.00 (19–88) |
| Lack of confidence in caretaking (LCC) | How capable the mother feels when caring for her baby | 32.40 | 9.12 | 60.00 (10–70) |
| Overall impressions | Maternal perceptions of her baby’s behaviour and her own confidence | |||
| Easiness (easy) | How calm, alert and settled the infant appears overall | 24.28 | 2.30 | 12.00 (16–28) |
| Global confidence (GC) | How confident the mother feels about coping; general anxiety level | 17.74 | 1.88 | 8.00 (13–21) |
| Feeding | Infant behaviour during feeding | |||
| Alert during feeds (ADF) | Alertness during feeds | 17.09 | 4.46 | 23.00 (6–29) |
| Irritable during feeds (IDF) | Whether the infant feeds reluctantly or with difficulty or irritability | 19.18 | 7.05 | 39.00 (7–46) |
| Lack of confidence in breastfeeding (LCBF) | If breastfeeding, whether experienced as problematic (e.g. tension, conflicting advice, technique and birth impacts) | 16.49 | 6.27 | 38.00 (7–45) |
N = 999 for all MABS items except lack of confidence in breastfeeding where it is 855.