Background: The birth of a premature child is stressful for parents and brings them psychological stress. In the meantime, paying attention to the spiritual dimension can play an important role in reducing mothers’ stress.

Aim: To investigate the effect of spiritual self-care training on the stress of mothers of premature infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.

Method: This experimental study was performed on 50 mothers of premature infants admitted to two children’s specialized hospitals of Taleghani Gonbad Kavous and Taleghan by simple random sampling in two test and control groups. In the test group, six 40-45- minute sessions were performed according to the Mary Wight spiritual self-care protocol and in the control group, routine the care was implemented. The data collection tool was the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) of Spielberger. Data analysis was performed by descriptive statistics (tables, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (paired t-test, independent t-test, and ANCOVA).

Results: The covariance test showed a significant difference (P <0.01 and Eta = 0.25) by eliminating the effect of pretest (P <0.01 and Eta = 0.25), so that 25% of the stress reduction changes are related to spiritual self-care in mothers.

Conclusion: Due to the effectiveness of spiritual self-care method in mothers, health officials can use non-pharmacological methods by discovering the spiritual needs of mothers. Since Iran is an Islamic country with adherence to spiritual and religious principles, the use of non-pharmacological methods such as spiritual therapy can play an important role in reducing maternal anxiety and stress.

Keywords: Spiritual self-care, stress, infant, mothers of infants, premature infants