Prolonged Distress of Parents After Early Preterm Birth

To examine how parents describe the distress of early preterm birth in the months and years after the infant's hospital discharge.

Discourse analysis of in-depth interviews and photo elicitation.

Homes or cafés in the Pacific Northwest United States.

Parents of premature infants born between 24 and 30 weeks gestation (N = 10) who experienced significant distress in and out of the hospital. Parents participated in the study when their children were between 15 months and 8 years old.

Participants described dealing with prematurity, emotional distress, and parenting in individual interviews and returned for second interviews in which they further described their distress using photographs. Data were analyzed using discourse analysis.

Parents described preterm birth, hospitalization, and the aftermath as ongoing traumatic events. Discourses of distress included the Perfect Child, the Good Mother, and the Good Father. Parents used these discourses to reconcile the loss of an idealized birth and parenting after the birth of a premature child. Isolation and Medicalized Parenting were used to explain how parents struggled to interact within their social networks and to parent under challenging circumstances.

Participants described their trauma and distress in ways not captured by psychiatric diagnoses such as depression and anxiety. Findings may help nurses be aware of the negative effects of preterm birth and respond to parents' emotional needs.