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Parents' experiences of emotional closeness to their infants in the neonatal unit: A meta-ethnography
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Parents' experiences of emotional closeness to their infants in the neonatal unit: A meta-ethnography

Gill Thomson, Renée Flacking, Kendall George, Nancy Feeley, Helle Haslund-Thomsen, Kris De Coen, Virginia Schmied, Livio Provenzi and Jen Rowe
Early Human Development, Vol.149, pp.1-14
2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2020.105155
PMID: 32829240
Appears in  UniSC Diversity and Inclusion Research Collection
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2020.105155View
Published Version

Abstract

Premature NICU Neonatal care Parent-infant relationships Emotional closeness Meta-ethnography UniSC Diversity Area - Life Stages
Physical and emotional parent-infant closeness activate important neurobiological mechanisms involved in parenting. In a neonatal care context, most research focuses on physical (parental presence, skin-to-skin contact) aspects; insights into emotional closeness can be masked by findings that overemphasise the barriers or challenges to parenting an infant during neonatal care. To explore existing qualitative research to identify what facilitates and enables parents' experiences of emotional closeness to their infants while cared for in a neonatal unit. A systematic review using meta-ethnographic methods. Search strategy involved searches on six databases, author runs, and backward and forward chaining. Reciprocal translation was used to identify and compare key concepts of parent-infant emotional closeness. Searches identified 6992 hits, and 34 studies from 17 countries that involved 670 parents were included. Three overarching themes and associated sub-themes were developed. ‘Embodied connections’ describes how emotional closeness was facilitated by reciprocal parent-infant interactions, spending time as a family, and methods for parents to feel connected while physically separated. ‘Inner knowing’ concerns how knowledge about infant and maternal health and understanding the norms of neonatal care facilitated emotional closeness. ‘Evolving parental role’ relates to how emotional closeness was intertwined with parental identities of contributing to infant health, providing direct care, and being acknowledged as a parent. Parent-infant closeness evolves and is facilitated by multifaceted biopsychosocial factors. Practice implications include creating private and uninterrupted family time, strategies for parents to maintain an emotional connection to their infant when separated, and neurobiology education for staff. •Emotional closeness is crucial for parent-infant relationships.•Emotional closeness in neonatal care is affected by specific biopsychosocial aspects.•Emotional closeness requires reciprocity, knowledge and parental recognition.

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Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Pediatrics

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#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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