Parenting the post-NICU premature infant

MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs. 2004 Nov-Dec;29(6):398-403. doi: 10.1097/00005721-200411000-00011.

Abstract

The birth of a premature infant is stressful for family members who must adjust to unfamiliar surroundings, learn new vocabularies, cope with the infant's uncertain survival and outcome, maintain vigilance at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and eventually assume care for a recovering infant at home. Nursing research has focused on many issues related to parenting prematurely born infants, including parenting during the initial hospitalization, concerns of mothers about infant discharge, the relationship between premature infants and their mothers during the first 2 years after hospital discharge, the quality of the home environment on premature infant outcomes, parenting after the first 2 years, and interventions to improve parenting. This article focuses on research about parenting the post-NICU discharge infant to assist nurses in giving comprehensive, evidence-based care.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological
  • Continuity of Patient Care / standards*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Infant, Premature*
  • Intensive Care Units, Neonatal
  • Neonatal Nursing / education
  • Neonatal Nursing / methods*
  • Nursing Methodology Research
  • Parent-Child Relations*
  • Parenting* / psychology
  • Parents* / education
  • Parents* / psychology
  • Pregnancy
  • Time Factors
  • United States