Supporting early parenting following preterm birth

Abstract

Drawing upon diverse methodological and contextual inquiry, this chapter provides insights into parents’ experiences in neonatal intensive care settings following preterm birth. Parents’ experiences after preterm birth are generally viewed as stress provoking. These stresses arise from several sources including infant health, physical and cultural environment of the neonatal unit, challenges to pre-existing identity and assumptions, and how they are supported and prepared for parenthood transitions. How parents react to and cope with these stresses is moderated by the individual personality, gender-based assumptions about appropriate responses, and how parents are integrated into neonatal unit and infant care activities. Improved communication with health professionals, feeling listened to, having their needs for emotional support understood, getting involved in infant care, and developing deeper understandings of their baby’s expected behaviour and developmental trajectory empower parents, reduce their anxieties, and help them to establish robust responses to the challenges mothers and fathers face following preterm parenthood.