Mothers' experiences of a stay in an ICU after a complicated childbirth

Abstract

The mothers need support and encouragement from the staff throughout their hospital stay, and sometimes afterwards. There is a need to receive information, especially about the baby, and to have one's family close by, when in an ICU despite illness severity. How the new family is met by the staff is of great importance.

Critical care nurses' experiences of nursing mothers in an ICU after complicated childbirth

“…When the focus is on saving the mothers' lives and on their vital functions there might be a risk that the mothers feel they have no control over their own experiences and it is, therefore, essential that staff inform them about the process (Elmir et al ., ). Engström and Lindberg () show that after a complicated childbirth entailing a stay in an ICU, mothers feel that they were less ill than other patients and therefore less important. According to Gallagher (), we are vulnerable, particularly in relation to dignity, at all stages of life.…”

“…After a complicated childbirth it has been shown that the most important thing for the mothers is to know about the baby, they worried about the father and needed to have someone to talk to (Engström and Lindberg, ). Separation of mother and child should be avoided if possible (Berg and Dahlberg, ).…”

What's in this issue?

“…The paper by Engstrom and Linberg (2012) examines the experiences of eight mothers who had a short stay in ICU following a complicated birth. They describe this rare event and the implications this has for the mothers and the critical care nurses who care for them.…”

The desire of parents to be involved and present

“…Previous studies have highlighted parents' experiences of having their child in an NICU (Lindberg et al , ; Diffin et al , ) and experiences when the mother is in an ICU and the child might be in an NICU (Engström and Lindberg, , ; Lindberg and Engström, ) or about parental communication needs with health care professionals (Meert et al , ; Fegran and Helseth, ). When one looks for research about parents' experiences of intensive care when their child is between 1 and 18 years of age, the articles we found on the subject compare parents' stress and experiences in the cases of acutely ill, intubated children and acutely ill non‐intubated children, and parents' experiences of being present or not during resuscitation of their child in a children's ICU (Haines et al , ; Maxton, ).…”