Objective To explore the psychological state and role change of elderly mothers under mother-infant separation of preterm infants.Methods Eighty-two preterm infants of advanced maternal age delivered in a hospital in Nanyang from February 2017 to October 2020 were selected as subjects in the observation group

and 82 infants of advanled maternal age delivered in this hospital during the same period were randomly selected as controls;mother-infant separation was performed after the successful delivery of the fetus in both groups and the newborns were sent to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for monitoring and treatment.The maternal role adaptation and neonatal care ability of the two groups after the mother-infant separation were compared;the maternal lactation and exclusive breastfeeding on days 1

2 and 3 after the mother-infant separation were compared;the maternal Self-rating Depression Scale（SDS） and Self-rating Anxiety Scale（SAS） scores of the two groups after the mother-infant separation were compared.Results After the mother-infant separation

the maternal SDS and SAS scores were higher in the observation group than those in the control group

and the differences were statistically significant（P<0.05）.There were no statistically significant differences after the mother-infant separation in the maternal role transition scores and neonatal care ability scores between the 2 groups（P>0.05）.The maternal lactation on day 3 after mother-infant separation in the observation group was less than that in the control group

with a statistically significant difference（P <0.05）.The exclusive breastfeeding rate of mothers in the control group after the separation was 36.59%

which was higher than that in the observation group（29.27%）

and the difference was not statistically significant（P>0.05）.Conclusion The negative emotions of the elderly mothers after mother-infant separation were significantly higher than those of normal childbearing age

but the adaptation to role transition and newborn care ability were not significantly different from those of normal childbearing age.