Mothers' strategies to meet their needs in the newborn intensive care nursery.
In this prospective, critical ethnographic study using a total of 448 hours of participant observations incorporating in-depth interviews, the author explored with 12 mothers of premature babies their descriptions and interpretations of their own needs in a tertiary-level newborn nursery (NICU) and their actions to address these needs. In the NICU the mothers demonstrated a repertoire of actions to vigilantly "watch over" their premature babies, which they extended to address their own needs as well. The mothers employed these actions in such a way as to minimize the potential for diverting resources from their babies and to minimize conflict with caregivers.
Hurst
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Center on Research on Vulnerable Women, Children, and Families, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
D002140:California; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D004493:Education / Q000379:methods; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal / Q000379:methods*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D017283:Neonatal Nursing / Q000379:methods; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D011446:Prospective Studies