Addressing the Needs of Mothers with Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Secondary Analysis

Abstract

Mothers of infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) need to be recognized as essential partners of the care team as their presence and involvement are key to infants' health and developmental outcomes. Addressing mothers' perceived needs is beneficial for the improvement of supportive nursing care; however, little qualitative research on their unmet needs has been conducted in South Korea. This study assessed mothers' perspectives on their NICU experiences and their unmet needs within the South Korean cultural context. Method: A cross-sectional, multicentered, secondary analysis study was conducted using the written responses to an open-ended questionnaire. Of the 344 NICU-experienced mothers, 232 throughout South Korea (seven cities and five provinces) voluntarily completed the questionnaire via smartphone-based or web-based surveys. Their narrative responses were analyzed using thematic content analysis guided by the critical incident technique. Results: Four themes emerged. NICU-experienced mothers of preterm infants referred to the "familyfriendly environment" (16.4%) as a positive experience. The greatest unmet need was "relationship-based support" (58.2%), followed by "information and education-based support" (20.0%) and "system-level challenges" (5.4%). Conclusion:The importance of creating a family-friendly NICU environment should be emphasized by ensuring 24-hour unrestricted access and encouraging active parental involvement in infant care, as well as actively supporting NICU families through supportive words and actions. The assurance of antiinfection management and better staffing levels should be fundamentally guaranteed to NICU staff.

Alberta Family Integrated Care™ and Standard Care: A Qualitative Study of Mothers’ Experiences of their Journeying to Home from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

“…Mothers in the standard care group did not describe the same feelings of support. This perceived lack of support from healthcare providers is consistent with other studies ( Hassankhani et al, 2020 ; Kim, 2020 ; Sigurdson et al, 2020 ; Wreesmann et al, 2021 ) and may place greater responsibility on mothers to navigate on their own a longer and more circuitous journey to home. To improve the quality of care in all NICUs, future research is needed to better understand the components of AB-FICare™ that contribute to reciprocal trust and maternal feelings of support and empowerment in the care of their preterm infant.…”

Psychological Processes of Postpartum Mothers with Newborns Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit

“…Previous studies have pointed out that parentechild skin contact could enhance parentechild connection. Mothers' participation in caring for newborns and breastfeeding can help mothers feel capable and confident about fulfilling maternal responsibilities [7]. In this study, new finding an in-depth investigation further showed that the timing of the skin-to-skin contact was the turning point in recognizing their maternal identity.…”

“…For example, there may be a lack of empathetic communication from medical staff, limited parentechild contact due to the separation from the infants, fear of getting close to the babies when visiting, self-blaming, and emotional crying. These mothers rarely receive proper assistance and timely support from the medical team [7].…”

“…Other helpful measures include keeping mothers apprised of newborns' conditions and treatment procedures, establishing a good doctorepatient relationship, actively listening to patients, assisting patients in coping with difficult situations and crises, helping patients avoid fear and insecurity, adopting a familycentered holistic care plan, elevating the mothers' and families' learning ability, strengthening the skills of mothers and families in baby care, providing useful channels of information, and caring for the mothers' life and emotional needs. These winewin measures can reduce mothers' depression, help mothers practice maternal roles, establish parentechild relationships, reduce patients' sense of loss from their separation from newborns, improve family functions, and reduce the negative impact on the family and infants [7,10,11].…”

What matters to families about the healthcare of preterm or low birth weight infants: A qualitative evidence synthesis

“…It may be or must be too hard for one nurse to care for several babies properly at once." (South Korea, hospital)[51] "What made me sad is ... you will find your baby there ... not taken care of ... If you happen not to go to the unit because you were not feeling well, by the time you go there to check on her, you will find her in the same sheets and the nappy not changed."…”