Experiences of Mothers with hospitalized Preterm Babies in Tamale Central Hospital, Ghana

Background: Admission of a baby into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is highly traumatic and stressful for parents especially mothers. This leads to a breakdown of the family unit due to the impediments undermining the family routine. When a baby is born premature, preparations for the baby is interrupted and the mother of the premature baby might feel as if she is missing out on something. There is an observation of maternal challenges regarding the management of preterm babies at the Tamale Central Hospital. These challenges range from social, economic, physiological and psychological in nature. Physiologically, preterm babies encounter numerous problems such as respiratory, maintenance of body temperature, exposure to infection and difficulty in feeding.

Purpose: This study seeks to determine the maternal experiences of hospitalized preterm babies.

Methodology: A phenomenological qualitative design was used. Fifteen mothers with hospitalized preterm babies were interviewed. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. This allowed for consistency and reliability. After transcribing and reading the interviews, meaningful units were identified and grouped by similarity, giving rise to thematic categorization.

Results: The study found that the involvement of mothers in the care of their preterm babies in NICU was helpful though they experienced fear in interacting with their babies initially due to adverse barriers such as fear of hurting the preterm baby and fear of equipment in the NICU.

Conclusion: The factors which led to mothers’ anxiety such as fear in interacting with their babies, fear of equipment in the neonatal intensive care unit and non-explanation of the baby’s condition would be reduced if mothers get the support from staff, other mothers from the NICU and the participants' families assisted them to cope.