‘Now she has become my daughter’: parents’ early experiences of skin‐to‐skin contact with extremely preterm infants

摘要

Background Based on the Family‐Centred Care philosophy, skin‐to‐skin contact is a key activity in neonatal care, and use of this practice is increasing also with extremely preterm infants. Little is known about parents’ immediate experiences of and readiness for skin‐to‐skin contact, while their fragile infant may still not be ‘on safe ground’. Knowledge about parents’ experiences might reduce doubt and reluctance among healthcare professionals to use skin‐to‐skin contact with extremely preterm infants and thus increase its dissemination in practice. Aims and objectives To explore parents’ immediate experiences of skin‐to‐skin contact with extremely preterm infants 28‐week postmenstrual age. Methodological design A qualitative study using thematic analysis. Research methods Thirteen semi‐structured interviews conducted in 2008 with 16 parents after skin‐to‐skin contact with their extremely preterm infants analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings Parents’ experiences were related to the process before, during and after skin‐to‐skin contact and moved from ambivalence to appreciating skin‐to‐skin contact as beneficial for both parents and infant. The process comprised three stages: (i) overcoming ambivalence through professional support and personal experience; (ii) proximity creating parental feelings and an inner need to provide care; (iii) feeling useful as a parent and realising the importance of skin‐to‐skin contact. Having repeatedly gone through stages 2 and 3, parents developed an overall confidence in the value of bonding, independent of the infant's survival. Conclusions Parents progressed from ambivalence to a feeling of fundamental mutual needs for skin‐to‐skin contact. Parents found the bonding facilitated by skin‐to‐skin contact to be valuable, regardless of the infant's survival.