Parental Experience Learning to Feed Their Preterm Infants (original) (raw)

2014, Advances in Neonatal Care

Purpose-Although extensive research has been conducted on preterm infant oral feeding, few investigations have examined parents' experiences learning to orally feed their preterm infant while in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). As such, the aim of this study was to explore parental learning experiences to gain a better understanding of the process parents' use in learning to feed their preterm infant. Subjects-Parents included in the investigation were18 years of age or older with a medically stable preterm infant that was less than 36 weeks gestational age at birth, free of congenital malformations, and feeding orally. Design-This investigation used hermeneutic phenomenology to explore the depth and richness of parental experience with the process of learning to orally feed their preterm infant. Methods-Participants were recruited from a university affiliated women's hospital with a Level III NICU. Purposive sampling was used to ensure that all participants were familiar with the experience of interest. Data collection consisted of personal interviews conducted in a private consultation room located within the NICU. In instances where both the infant's mother and father chose to participate, the interviews were conducted separately on the same day. Main Outcome measures-Twelve mothers and eight fathers participated in semi-structured interviews. For eight mothers and six fathers, this was their first child. This was the first preterm infant for all participants. From the parental experience three themes were identified: an emotional experience; learn as you go; and it's technical. Principal Results-Parents noted that feeding encompassed both positive as well as negative emotions, that learning was a process that nurses played an instrumental role in, and that feeding a preterm infant could be very technical requiring extra skills for feeding success.

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact