How to facilitate parents and their premature infant for the transition home

Abstract

Background: An intervention programme was carried through in a neonatal intensive care unit at the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark in 1998/99. It comprised: (1) educational programmes during hospitalization for parents with premature infants; (2) visit and orientation about the neonatal intensive care unit by the family's health visitor; a multidisciplinary and cross-sector discharge conference; and (3) publication of relevant booklets for parents and health care providers.

Aim: To present the parents' experiences from this intervention, concerning support and coordination following delivery of a premature infant.

Method: A non-experimental design and descriptive study. The qualitative methods used were semi-structured questionnaires and focus group interviews.

Findings: The parents found that most of the intervention initiatives contributed to increased support and met their needs, including contributing to their confidence in caring for their premature infant and its well-being following discharge. The study contributed to meaningful knowledge about the consequences for parents and premature infants when mother and infant are separated in the beginning of life, mindful of the process of mother-infant bonding.

Implications: Major actions from the intervention programme now form permanent functions in the neonatal intensive care unit as well as in the primary health care sector. The study also confirmed the benefit of the role of the nurse-coordinator.