Purpose: To improve our understanding of fathers of preterm infants by examining their meanings of work and exploring the impact of their work on their early transition to fatherhood.
Subjects: The sample included 9 white fathers between the ages of 22 and 40 years, who had infants born between 25 and 32 weeks gestation.
Design and methods: This report explores one theme that emerged from a broader interpretive phenomenological study. Fathers were interviewed 6 to 8 times over a 6-month period, beginning within 1 month of the birth of their infant and continuing after neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) discharge. Interview guides were used only to initiate conversation; probing, clarifying questions helped fathers provide detailed stories of what they did, thought, and felt about specific situations. Transcriptions of all 63 interviews were treated as meaningful text and analyzed using interpretive methods.
Principal results: Fathers' narratives revealed the primacy of work in their lives; work remained a pivotal focus even after an early birth. Fathers returned to work quickly after their infant's birth. They approached their work with a renewed sense of fervor in order to provide financially for their families. They found comfort in their work because in the work setting they felt that they were the experts, as opposed to feeling like novices in the NICU. The most stressful aspect of the experience was juggling their time between work and the outside world.
Conclusions: Fathers may respond to the experience of having a premature infant very differently from mothers. Because fathers' stressors often lie outside the NICU, their stressors may be invisible to healthcare providers. A deeper understanding of fathering must consider the social, familial, and historical processes that shape fathering practices.