2024 Volume 33 Pages 221-228
The purpose of this study was to identify the empowerment structures that families with children needing constant medical care established to make their lives go smoothly. To understand the current situations that the families faced, I conducted semi-structured interviews with eight mothers and analyzed the qualitative data inductively. In my analysis, I tagged the data with symbols, and I identified six themes that contributed to the mothers having a smooth life: (1) realization: acknowledging the importance of life, (2) experience: accumulating successful experiences in childcare, (3) empathy: paying equal attention to each family member, (4) expansion: alternating roles in childcare, (5) learning: growing interactively with fellow caregivers, and (6) persistence: having endurance to achieve a desirable daily life. In this parental empowerment structure, the mothers acknowledged the importance of life, having witnessed their child’s tenacity in dealing with their own life-threatening experiences. Having this acknowledgment as a foundation, the mothers experienced repeated successes in childcare. While raising children who needed constant medical attention after being discharged from the NICU, parents expanded and developed themselves through positive phases such that they could pay equal attention to each family member, alternate roles with other caregivers, and learn interactively with other families with sick children. In addition to these themes, having the ability to keep on trying over the long period of time was also necessary for mothers to establish a smooth daily life while dealing with the sudden changes in their child’s health condition.
