Function of Peer Support Groups for Families with Premature Infants ─From Analysis of Emotions of Families through Non-Participant Observation─

Abstract

 In recent years, there has been an emphasis on families in neonatal medicine focusing on Family-Centered Care. However, it hasn’t been uncleared how families accept the experience in NICU. As such, this author: a mother of premature infants, attempted to participate in online peer support groups for families with premature infants as a non-participant observer. This practice aims to extract the meaning of the emotions of the families and the themes they discussed from psychological perspective. Consequently, we could see various minds classified in negative and positive aspects, and some of them are expressed in non-verbal ways. In terms of functions of self-help / mutual help / public assistance provided by governments and medical care, peer support groups for families work as places for mutual help to exchange information which is not sufficient from self-help efforts. On the other hand, from the aspect of Psychology, we revealed the limits of peer support groups for families as mutual help, as shown in the ways of families control their real emotions and use a defense mechanism themselves. Therefore, we revealed that it is important to be considerate of the emotions of families and support their recovery.