A Study of Meanings of the Interactions Between Preterm Infant's Mothers and Nurses in the NICU

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe what happened during the interactions between.preterm infant's mothers and nurses in the NICU, by identifying the meanings of the interactions.
This research design was the qualitative, descriptive study. The subjects were consistedof 7 mothers with preterm infants and 26 nurses. The data was gathered using the participantobservation and the interviews technique. The participant observation was conductedwhen the mothers interacted with the nurses in the NICU and the both were interviewedusing the semi-constructed questionaire. The data was analysed by a qualitative method.
Four core categories were derived from the data. The categories were “freedom andrestriction”“knowing their infants”“being with their infants”“mother's love”. They promotedto establish the relationships between the mothers and their infants under the conditions ofthe NICU. The results also suggested that the professional support by the nurses was impor-tant for mothers to know their infants.