Beyond presence Acknowledging parents as primary caregivers in neonatal care

When an infant is admitted to a neonatal ward because of preterm birth, low birthweight, or medical conditions such as perinatal infections, parents often face a stressful period. A key contributor to parental stress is parental role alteration, where parents struggle to define their parental identity in a highly technical and unfamiliar environment. This disrupts the parent-infant relationship, with consequences for both parent wellbeing and infant health.
This thesis explores strategies to integrate parents as partners in neonatal care and assesses the effects of such approaches on both parents and infants, specifically on level II units. The effects of implementing Family Integrated Care, a model that involves parents as equitable partners in care, is evaluated in two multicenter studies. Also, we describe parents’ experiences of participation in neonatal care, and we describe the development and validation of a prediction tool for estimating upcoming discharge of preterm infants.
The positive effects of integrating families in the level II neonatal care setting on both parental stress and infant health are highlighted, accompanying previous evidence on level III neonatal intensive care units. We conclude that parent partnership reaches beyond welcoming parents in care, but requires acknowledging them as primary caregivers in their infant’s care.