Are fathers supported by neonatal teams?: An exploration of the literature

Abstract

There has been an increased amount of research in recent years exploring the experiences of fathers whilst on the neonatal intensive care unit; however this number does not match the amount of research completed examining the experience of mothers., Fathers face unique challenges, which are beginning to be met through innovative service development based on research findings Further to this, fathers continue to report their feelings of lack of control and inequality in regard to parental involvement.

Introduction

For parents, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a stressful and anxious place. Parents find themselves in the middle of complex equipment and highly technical machinery, each with its own sound or alarm (Sloan et al., 2008, O'Brien and Warren, 2014). Few parents expect to find their child admitted on to a neonatal intensive care unit. If this does happen it can often result in the family spending weeks or months in the unfamiliar hospital environment. There have been copious amounts of research exploring the experience of mothers in the NICU environment this is merely an example of available literature (Flacking et al., 2007, Baum et al., 2012, Hall et al., 2013, Finlayson et al., 2014). This research has proved beneficial and has assisted in helping practitioners gain an insight into how mothers can be supported. More recently, research exploring the experience of fathers has been completed (Carter et al., 2005, Lindberg et al., 2007, Arockiasamy et al., 2008, Hollywood and Hollywood, 2011, Deeney et al., 2012 . Lee et al., 2012, O'Brien and Warren, 2014). This research has found similar outcomes to the previous work with mothers. One key finding was, that lack of control, was experienced by both mothers and fathers. However this appeared more prevalent for the fathers (Wigert et al., 2006, Arockiasamy et al., 2008, Deeney et al., 2012).