Parents’ perceptions of their infant's pain experience in the NICU

Stress and distress in parents of neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit for cardiac surgery

“…Parents with an infant admitted to the NICU for surgery may have experienced their baby undergoing a number of painful medical, and surgical procedures. A study which investigated mothers' perceptions of the pain experienced by their infant in the NICU found that seeing their infant undergo painful procedures, and an inability to protect their infant from pain, was stress inducing [47]. In contrast to previous findings [13], levels of social support were not significantly associated with either anxiety or depression in the current study.…”

The Parental Experience of Having an Infant in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit

“…When these needs were met, the mothers became more responsible, confident, and familiar with their fragile infant (Cronin, 2003;Hall, 2005aHall, , 2005bJackson et al, 2003;Nystrom & Axelsson, 2002;Wigert et al, 2006). The major theme and source of parental stress in the NICU was infants' pain; relief of infant pain was related to reduction of parental distress (Gale et al, 2004). Moreover, the mothers experienced grief and anxiety because their newborn might not survive (Feldman et al, 1999).…”

“…Secondly, parental stress was decreased by staff support, involvement of parents in providing care to their infant, and having clear information and open communication with nurses and other health professionals (Gale et al, 2004). Conner and Nelson (1999) found that parents need caring, communication, consistent information, education, follow up, adequate pain management, participation in the infant's care, and proximity to and support with their fragile infant.…”

“…Such experiences of distress are also thought to be related to an infant's prematurity and the NICU environment, as well as isolation, physical and emotional, from their baby (Carter, Mulder, Bartram, & Darlow, 2005;Gale, Franck, Kools, & Lynch, 2004;Moon & Koo, 1999). According to Shin (2004), mothers experience feelings of ambivalence, shame, guilt, and failure that are related to social prejudice.…”

“…The most commonly reported parents' responses to alteration of the parenting role are the inability to protect the infant from pain and provide appropriate pain management, anxiety, helplessness, loss of control, fear, uncertainty, and worries about the premature infant's outcomes (Callery, 2002;Gale et al, 2004). These findings indicate that the inability to perform a normal parenting role is the predominant source of distress.…”