Johnston, C. C., Stevens, B., Pinelli, J., et al. (2003). Kangaroo care is effective in diminishing pain response in preterm infants. Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, 157, 1084-1088.
Skin-to-skin care has been shown to be associated with positive clinical and neurobehavioral outcomes for premature infants and is now becoming standard care in newborn intensive care. This study investigated its effect on the pain responses of infants undergoing a heel stick procedure. Kangaroo care was shown to significantly reduce infants' pain responses.
Meier, P. P., Engstrom, J. L., Mingolelli, S. S., et al. (2004). The Rush Mother's Milk Club: Breastfeeding interventions for mothers with very-low-birth-weight infants. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 33(2), 164-173.
Mothers of infants in the newborn intensive care nursery who received evidence-based information about breastfeeding, access to a breast pump, education, and peer support showed rates of lactation initiation and days spent exclusively breastfeeding or partially breastfeeding that approach the National Health Objective of the Healthy People 2010 initiative. This was true despite the fact that the mothers had significant risk factors associated with low breastfeeding rates. This study showed the highest reported rate of breastfeeding among African-American women.
Orfali, K., & Gordon, E. J. (2004). Autonomy gone awry: A cross-cultural study of parents' experiences in neonatal intensive care units. Theoretical Medicine, 25, 329-365.
The researchers investigated parents' perceptions of decision-making in three hospitals (two in France and one in U.S.) to compare outcomes of the American model of offering parents more autonomy versus the French model of medical authority. Although the U.S. model purports to value informed consent and parental autonomy the researchers found that most mothers reported that they were not involved in decision-making so much as signing consent forms. Problems in continuity of care resulted in inconsistency in communication and difficulty for American mothers to build desired relationships with physicians. This had significant consequences associated with end-of-life decisions. French mothers more often reported strong relationships with physicians that appeared to support coping, especially in the case of infant death. Mothers in the American hospital reported feeling abandoned to make important life and death decisions.
...it seems prudent to reconsider the practice of autonomy in particularly stressful situations by providing more specific needs of coping, translating the impersonal language of 'rights' and decision-making into trust, caring relationships, and sharing the responsibility for making tragic choices (p.356).
Penticuff, J., & Arheart, K. (2005). Effectiveness of an intervention to improve parent-professional collaboration in neonatal intensive care. Journal of Perinatal Neonatal Nursing, 19(2), 187-202.
One hundred and fifty four parents in two NICUs were assigned to an intervention or control group. Measures were used to evaluate the parents' understanding of their infant's conditions and satisfaction with medical treatment decisions over the course of 28 days. The intervention consisted of education and support to use a comprehensive progress chart to record their observations of their infant's clinical and behavioral development. The intervention group had significantly less unrealistic concerns, uncertainty of infant's condition, and perception of decisional conflict. They reported higher satisfaction with the decision-making process, the amount of input they had, and amount of shared decision-making.
Preyde, M, Ardal, F. (2003). Effectiveness of a parent "buddy" program for mothers of very preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care unit. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 168(8), 969-973.
Mothers of infants born at less than 30 weeks who participated in a parent to parent support program, reported significantly less stress after 4 weeks and less state anxiety, less depression, and greater perceived social support at 16 weeks after enrollment than mothers who did not receive support.
Van Riper, M. (2001). Family-provider relationships and well-being in families with pre-term infants in the NICU. Heart & Lung, 30(1), 74-84.
Mothers of pre-term infants who describe their relationships with their primary health care providers in newborn intensive care as positive and family-centered, reported higher levels of satisfaction with care, were more likely to seek help from health care providers, and had higher levels of psychological well-being.