Background
In Northern Ireland over 2000 babies are admitted annually to neonatal intensive care units (NICU) because they are born preterm or are suffering from other health complications.
Many parents face a rollercoaster experience watching their baby/babies undergo medical, including life-saving medical, procedures. In this study we focus on fathers of newborn infants admitted to NICU.
While the literature has paid attention to the needs of mothers in caring for babies who are designated high-risk infants at birth, the experience of fathers and their health and social care needs while fathering high-risk infants has been neglected.
In addition, the overwhelming focus in the media and health sciences literature is on the care of small and preterm infants in NICU to the neglect of infants born at term. Hence, we focus on the interface of two relatively understudied areas: the fathering of high- risk infants born at term and preterm.
Aims
We seek to understand men’s experiences of being the parent of a high-risk infant born either at term or preterm within the hospital setting and later in the home. We aim to contribute to wider research on men, masculinities and fathering and to develop guidelines for improved practice in neo-natal and family health that would incorporate the needs of fathers in caring for high-risk infants.