'I Did Not Know We Could Exercise This Small Premature Baby': Challenges Experienced by Parents While Implementing...

Area of Science:

• Neonatal care
• Parental support
• Early intervention programs

Background:

• Preterm birth presents significant stress for parents and infants.
• Parental involvement in care improves infant development and parent-infant bonding.
• Low parental adherence to intervention programs is a persistent challenge in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and home settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify challenges faced by new parents in implementing early intervention programs for preterm infants during the transition from hospital to home.
• To understand parents' perspectives on early intervention for their infants born preterm.

Main Methods:

• Ten parents of preterm infants, trained in early intervention, were interviewed using semistructured, in-depth interviews.
• Interviews were transcribed, translated, and analyzed thematically using ATLAS.ti software.
• Thematic analysis identified overarching challenges through deductive and inductive coding.

Main Results:

• Five key themes emerged: navigating early parenthood, nurturing infant resilience, informed caregiving, time mastery for efficiency, and balancing caregiving equity and flexibility.
• Parents expressed fear in handling preterm infants due to low birth weight and size.
• Time constraints, altered sleep, and infant stress behaviors posed challenges to program adherence, with observed gender differences in home program continuation.

Conclusions:

• Parents encounter significant challenges in providing home-based early intervention for preterm infants.
• Key issues include maternal role adjustment, family support needs, infant handling difficulties, exercise adherence, and time management.