Background:Most healthcare professionals in neonatal intensive care units typically focus on the infants and mothers; fathers often feel powerless and find it difficult to establish a father-child relationship. In family-centered healthcare settings, exploring fathers' experiences and needs is important because men's roles in society, especially as fathers, are changing.Purpose:To describe fathers' needs when their infants are admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit and to discuss these needs within a theoretical framework of masculinity to advance understanding and generate meaningful knowledge for clinical practices.Methods:This qualitative study used participant observation, interviews, multiple sequential interviews, and a focus group discussion. Data were analyzed using grounded theory principles.Results:Analysis of the fathers' needs generated 2 primary themes: (1) Fathers as caregivers and breadwinners and (2) fathers and emotions. Fathers wished to be involved and to take care of their infants but have to balance cultural and social norms and expectations of being breadwinners with their wishes to be equal coparents.Implications for Practice/Research:Health professionals in neonatal intensive care units must be aware of fathers' need and desire to be equal coparents. Nurses should play a key role by, for example, showing that fathers are as important to their infants as are the mothers, helping them become involved in childcare, and ensuring that they are directly informed about their children's progress. Further research in other cultural settings would contribute to knowledge regarding fatherhood and the role of fathers in childcare.
It is important that health professionals treating fertile women with a psychiatric disease discuss whether psychotropic drugs are needed during pregnancy and how it has to be administered.
Background:Healthcare professionals in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) tend to focus attention on the mothers and the newborn infants. Thus, fathers may find it difficult to establish an optimal father–child relationship and their stress may increase and persist during hospitalization.Purpose:To investigate the impact of a more father-friendly NICU on paternal stress and their participation in childcare.Methods:A quasiexperimental design was conducted on Danish-speaking fathers of newborn infants 28 or more weeks' gestational age. The Parental Stressor Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PSS:NICU) was used to measure paternal perceptions of stressors. Paternal participation in childcare was measured using 7 additional items. The questionnaires were distributed on admission to the NICU, at the 14th day of hospitalization, and at the time of discharge. The primary outcome was the difference in the PSS:NICU overall stress score on admission to the NICU and at the time of discharge in the control group compared with the intervention group.Results:A total of 109 fathers were included. The overall PSS:NICU stress score increased after the intervention. Paternal involvement, staff expectations, and the social expectation to fulfill the traditional role of a breadwinner and additionally of a caregiver may have caused increased stress.Implications for Practice:Healthcare professionals must be aware of the father's need to be an equal coparent. Nurses, as key persons, should motivate and expect fathers to be involved, and support them to establish a father–child relationship, although they might become more stressed.Implications for Research:More adequate outcome measures are needed to determine the effect of interventions on paternal stress.
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