Becoming a mother - Mothers' experience of Kangaroo Mother Care.

Objective: To describe mothers' experiences of providing their preterm infants with Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC).

Study Design: A qualitative descriptive design.

Setting: Two level III neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in Sweden.

Parents need support to find ways to optimise their own sleep without seeing their preterm infant's sleeping patterns as a problem.

Aim: This study described how parents perceived their own sleep, and their infants', during neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission and after discharge. It also explored the infants' sleeping location at home.

Methods: The study was conducted in the NICUs of two Swedish university hospitals.

Skin-to-skin contact is associated with earlier breastfeeding attainment in preterm infants.

Aim: This study investigated the effects of skin-to-skin contact on breastfeeding attainment, duration and infant growth in preterm infants, as this has not been sufficiently explored.

Methods: A prospective longitudinal study on Kangaroo mother care was carried out, comprising 104 infants with a gestational age of 28 + 0 to 33 + 6 and followed up to one year of corrected age. Parents and staff recorded the duration of skin-to skin contact during the stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Breastfeeding Patterns in Preterm Infants Born at 28-33 Gestational Weeks.

Background: Studies of breastfeeding patterns during preterm infants' first year of life are scarce but are important for providing breastfeeding mothers of preterm infants with optimal support.

Objective: This study aimed to describe breastfeeding patterns in preterm infants up to 1 year of corrected age.

Methods: As part of a larger study on kangaroo mother care in Sweden, a 24-hour breastfeeding diary was sent home after discharge from hospital, and at 2, 6, and 12 months of the infant's corrected age.

First-time events between parents and preterm infants are affected by the designs and routines of neonatal intensive care units.

Aim: Early parental bonding with preterm babies is particularly important, and the aim of our study was to explore when parents experienced what they regarded as important events for the first time while their infant was in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Methods: The study was part of a longitudinal project on Kangaroo Mother Care at two Swedish university hospitals. The parents of 81 infants completed questionnaires during their infants' hospital stay.

The Swedish Version of the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form: Reliability and Validity Assessment.

Background: Among Swedish mothers, breastfeeding duration has been declining in recent years. An instrument for early identification of women at risk for shorter breastfeeding duration may be useful in reversing this trend.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to translate and psychometrically test the Swedish version of the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (BSES-SF), examine the relationship between breastfeeding self-efficacy and demographic variables, and evaluate associations with breastfeeding continuation plans in Swedish mothers.

Factors affecting parents' presence with their extremely preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care room.

Aim: To describe parents' experiences of factors that influenced their stay with their extremely preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Methods: This study has a qualitative descriptive design based on semistructured interviews conducted with seven mothers and six fathers.

Results: Opportunities to stay overnight together with their infant facilitated parental presence, and opportunities for taking over their infant's care empowered the parents in their parental role and increased their motivation to stay.

Initiation and extent of skin-to-skin care at two Swedish neonatal intensive care units.

Aim: To describe initiation and extent of parents' application of skin-to-skin care (SSC) with their preterm infants at two Swedish neonatal intensive care units.

Methods: The duration of SSC was recorded in 104 infants' medical charts during their hospital stay, and the parents answered a questionnaire.

Results: Both parents were involved in the practice of SSC.

Provision of Kangaroo Mother Care: supportive factors and barriers perceived by parents.

Background: Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) supports parents' role at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). To enhance parents' provision of KMC, it is essential to obtain knowledge of what parents perceive as supportive factors and barriers regarding their opportunities to perform KMC.

Aim: To identify factors that parents of preterm infants perceived as supportive factors or barriers for their performance of KMC and to explore the timing of and reasons for parents' discontinuation of KMC.

Expansion of the ten steps to successful breastfeeding into neonatal intensive care: expert group recommendations for three guiding principles.

The World Health Organization/United Nations Children's Fund Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative: Revised, Updated, and Expanded for Integrated Care (2009) identifies the need for expanding the guidelines originally developed for maternity units to include neonatal intensive care. For this purpose, an expert group from the Nordic countries and Quebec, Canada, prepared a draft proposal, which was discussed at an international workshop in Uppsala, Sweden, in September 2011. The expert group suggests the addition of 3 "Guiding Principles" to the Ten Steps to support this vulnerable population of mothers and infants: 1.

Kangaroo Mother Care helps fathers of preterm infants gain confidence in the paternal role.

Aim: This article is a report on a descriptive study of fathers’ experiences of providing their preterm infants with Kangaroo Mother Care.

Background: During neonatal intensive care, fathers describe the incubator as a barrier and the separation from their infant as stressful. Fathers consider it important to be close to the infant, and performing Kangaroo Mother Care makes them feel an important participant in their infants' care.

Swedish mothers' experience of continuous Kangaroo Mother Care.

Aims: To characterise the first infants receiving continuous Kangaroo Mother Care from birth to discharge in a Swedish neonatal intensive care unit and to investigate their mothers' experiences of this model of care.

Background: Admission of a newborn infant to a neonatal intensive care unit commonly implies separation of the new mother from her infant. Kangaroo Mother Care is a model of neonatal care which supports the parental role as primary care-giver and contributes to minimising the separation between the infant and parents.

Influence of test weighing before/after nursing on breastfeeding in preterm infants.

Purpose: Swedish hospitals apply various regimens for preterm infants' nutrition in connection with their mothers' establishment of breastfeeding. Milk intake is assessed either by test weighing before and after breastfeeding or by observing the infant's suckling behavior (ie, clinical indices). These differing policies may lead to differences in infants' feeding progress.

Motor performance in very preterm infants before and after implementation of the newborn individualized developmental care and assessment programme in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Aim: To compare motor performance in supine position at the age of 4-months corrected age (CA) in very preterm (VPT) infants cared for in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before and after the implementation of the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP).

Methods: Assessments of motor performance in supine position according to level of motor development and quality of motor performance were made, using the Structured Observation of Motor Performance in Infants (SOMP-I).

Subjects: VPT infants cared for in a NICU at a Swedish university hospital before, Group A (n = 68), and after, Group B (n = 58), the implementation of developmentally supportive care based on NIDCAP.

Parents as their infant's primary caregivers in a neonatal intensive care unit.

The aim was to explore parents' and professionals' opinions about parental performance of care in a neonatal intensive care unit. Forty-three parents and 85 nurses completed questionnaires composed of a list of 95 caregiving activities; 14 nurses and 4 neonatologists participated in four focus group interviews. Considerable differences appeared in parents' and nurses' responses about parents' participation in their infants' care.

Application of the baby friendly hospital initiative to neonatal care: suggestions by Swedish mothers of very preterm infants.

The aim of this study was to obtain suggestions from mothers of very preterm infants regarding modification of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. Thirteen mothers were interviewed 2 to 6 months after their infants' discharge from the hospital. The interviews generated 13 steps, which partly agree with the BFHI steps.

Effects of socioeconomic status on breastfeeding duration in mothers of preterm and term infants.

Background: The propensity to breastfeed is not only of importance with regard to the beneficial effects on the individual, but is also of concern as an indicator of health behaviour related to social conditions. Thus, our aim was to investigate the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on breastfeeding duration in mothers of preterm and term infants.

Methods: Prospective population based cohort study.

Trustful bonds: a key to "becoming a mother" and to reciprocal breastfeeding. Stories of mothers of very preterm infants at a neonatal unit.

A preterm birth and subsequent hospitalization of an infant at a neonatal unit (NU) implies an extraordinary life situation for mothers, in which the maternal role and breastfeeding begin and evolve in a medical and unfamiliar setting. Descriptions of how women experience "becoming a mother" and breastfeeding in such a situation are sparse and this question was addressed in the present study. In this qualitative study, inspired by the grounded theory approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with 25 mothers whose very preterm infants had been cared for in seven NUs in Sweden.

Consulting on feeding and sleeping problems in child health care: what is at the bottom of advice to parents?

The aim of this study was to investigate and interpret ideas inherent in sleep and diet consultations concerning infants in Swedish child health services. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews of professionals employed in these services. A qualitative method with a phenomenological approach was applied to analyse the data.

Litmus tests for verification of feeding tube location in infants: evaluation of their clinical use.

Aims: To examine the clinical use of litmus paper tests for the assessment of aspirates in infants.

Background: In connection with establishing a programme for home care of infants with requirement of tube feeding with parents as the infants' carers, the need for a research-based method for verification of feeding tube position was identified by nurses as a complement to other methods. In adult care the litmus paper test is commonly used when visual inspection is not sufficient for assessment of aspirates obtained from feeding tubes.