title: Beyond stress: describing the experiences of families during neonatal intensive care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether parents of critically ill premature infants feel that neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) therapy is worthwhile, independent of their infant's outcome.
  
  
  METHODS
  The parent(s) of ventilated infants in the NICU were interviewed. Prominent themes were identified within the text of transcribed interviews and the frequency of each theme tabulated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The parents of 10 infants were interviewed. All parents experienced stress and understood the uncertain future of their infants. Parents remained optimistic and uniformly expressed that NICU intervention was 'worth it'. No parent described concern about 'torture', 'cruelty' or 'futile care'.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although parents experience significant stress while their infant is in the NICU, their emotional experiences are much more broad. They feel confident in their decision to give their child a chance, a responsibility to be informed and to make the best decisions they can and remain hopeful for a good outcome regardless of their child's condition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.|Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Catherine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Wraight
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McCoy
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Meadow
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D062071:Infant, Extremely Premature; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal / Q000523:psychology*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological
keywords: NICU Environment; Neonatal intensive care; Parental stress