An Early Collaborative Intervention Focusing on Parent-Infant Interaction in the Neonatal Period. A Descriptive Study of the Developmental Framework

Abstract

Moderate to late preterm infants are at risk of developing problems later in life. To support attachment and infants’ development, high quality parent-infant interaction is important. Parent-infant interaction is known to improve through intervention programs but since no such intervention program is addressed directly to moderate to late preterm infants, a tailor-made intervention was developed. The aim was to describe the rationale, development, framework and practical provision of a new early collaborative intervention program. This study has a descriptive design and the intervention is described using the Template for Intervention Description and Replication. During an intervention-session, the preterm infant’s cues are made visible to the parents as they perform an everyday care-taking procedure. Instant feedback is delivered to give the parents the opportunity to notice, interpret and respond to cues immediately. The infant’s response to the parent’s action is discussed in a dialogue to instantly guide parents´ awareness of the preterm infant’s subtle cues. This study describes a new early collaborative intervention, developed to support interaction between parents and their moderate to late preterm infants starting in the neonatal intensive care unit. Clinical studies evaluating parental experiences as well as the effects of the early intervention are ongoing, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02034617.

Neonatal family-centered care: evidence and practice models

“…The Family Nurture Intervention and Family Integrated Care focus on integrating parents and family members as partners in the infant’s care, including daily calming, nurturing, and interaction activities in NICUs [ 43 , 44 ]. Most recently, a Swedish group developed the Early Collaborative Intervention program to facilitate early parent-infant interactions that start within the first days of the infant’s life [ 45 ].…”

“…43,44) Most recently, a Swedish group developed the Early Collaborative Intervention program to facilitate early parent-infant interactions that start within the first days of the infant's life. 45) While most of these FCC models have focused on edu-cating or supporting parents to enhance their coping skills and parenting capacity, the Close Collaboration with Parents (CCP) program developed in Finland aims to train NICU staff to improve their skills in collaboration with parents and promote FCC. 46) Historically, many NICUs have failed to recognize parents as partners, and parents have reported that they are insufficiently included in their infants' care.…”

Mothers' experiences of a new early collaborative intervention, the EACI, in the neonatal period: A qualitative study

“…These are added to the written summary, for the parents to easier recall details from the session. An example of a written summary is supplemented with the published detailed description of the EACI (Helmer et al, 2021). As the EACI is a new intervention, a randomised controlled study is currently in progress to evaluate the quantitative effects of the program.…”

“…The EArly Collaborative Intervention (EACI) program is a new early intervention, developed to support interaction between parents and their preterm infants (Helmer et al, 2021). The intervention along with the theoretical framework is described previously (Helmer et al, 2021), and a summary is outlined below.…”

“…The EArly Collaborative Intervention (EACI) program is a new early intervention, developed to support interaction between parents and their preterm infants (Helmer et al, 2021). The intervention along with the theoretical framework is described previously (Helmer et al, 2021), and a summary is outlined below. Key components of this new intervention are that it starts early in the NICU, within 3 days of the preterm infant's birth, and it is tailored to suit infants born between gestational Weeks 30-36.…”