Family-centered Care in the NICU :

We sought to determine the correlates of intent to breastfeed and of successful lactation and nursing at the breast in mothers of very low birth weight (VLBW; or =5 times per day, and kangaroo care. These correlates remained significant after controlling for maternal age, race, marital status, and education beyond high school. At 4 months' CA, 14 mothers (16%) were still lactating, 12 of whom were nursing at the breast. Increased maternal support specifically directed toward behavioral factors, including early and more frequent milk expression and kangaroo care, may improve the rates of successful lactation among mothers of VLBW infants who choose to breastfeed.

Differences in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) environmental stress, uncertainty, and anxiety of 23 mothers and fathers (couples) whose premature infants were hospitalized in an NICU were explored. Alterations in the parental role were found to be stressful for both mothers and fathers, with mothers reporting significantly greater stress in this area than did fathers. Stress and uncertainty decreased significantly over time. Mothers and fathers did not differ in level of anxiety. Findings suggest that both mothers and fathers are distressed by the admission of a premature to an NICU; however, mothers may be more distressed by certain aspects of the experience.

This paper explores the use of 'chat' or 'social talk' as an important clinical tool that can assist nurses achieve family-centred care in neonatal nurseries. The study was undertaken to increase knowledge of women's experiences of mothering in the neonatal nursery and the relationship they share with nurses. The discussion presented is elicited from a grounded theory analysis of over 60 hours of interview data with 28 women, a thematic analysis of 50 hours of interviews with 20 nurses and a content analysis of 398 tape-recorded interactions between nurses and parents. The analysis identifies the importance of the nurse-mother relationship and demonstrates that it is both the context and method by which nursing care is delivered. We found the verbal exchanges that take place between nurse and mother influence a woman's confidence, her sense of control and her feelings of connection to her infant. It appears from the data that the nurse's ability to effectively 'engage' the mother is dependent on the use of language that expresses care, support and interest in parents. The data suggests that 'chatting' is the strategy and the process through which positive interactions are initiated, maintained and enhanced. This study confirms that nurses' language acts as a powerful clinical tool that can be used to assist parents in gaining confidence in caring for their infants and in becoming 'connected' to infants resident in nurseries.