Evaluation of psycho-social support to parents with an infant born preterm

Abstract

The birth of a preterm child is a trauma that causes crisis reactions in parents. The hypothesis was that parents need psycho-social support in order to manage this trauma. Psycho-social support was defined as both medical and social information, processing the emotional feelings, social support and starting the bonding process. The aim of the study was to explore the type and frequency of psycho-social support to parents of preterm children born during 1991, 1994 and 1997 in a Swedish university hospital. 47 parents answered a questionnaire based on previous focus group interviews. The children were born in gestation weeks 23-7. Medical and social information was more frequent during the first period of intensive care than later on during the care process. Contact frequency concerning feelings and emotional reactions was low and decreased over time. All parents were helped to start the bonding process. One-third of the parents reported long-term psychological problems due to the birth of the preterm child, while only a few reported financial (15%), practical (13%) or social (9%) long-term problems. Conclusions were that from a crisis theory perspective psycho-social support, defined as regular medical information also ought to be initiated later on in the care process and that increased emotional support concerning crisis reactions is desirable in order to process the feelings raised by the trauma.