Development of a Support System for Parents of Premature Infants

Abstract

Background: The concept of family-centered care is increasingly being recognized at the international level. Objectives: Development of a support system for parents of premature infants (PPI), based on family-centered care and scientific evidences. Methods: The method is based on four key steps. 1) Explaining parents� needs, including comprehensive review of quantitative studies, meta-synthesis of qualitative studies conducted in Iran by search of Iranian databases (IranMedex, Magiran, and SID) and international resources (PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar) and comparative study. 2) A comprehensive review to identify effective interventions in supporting PPI and ranking interventions. 3) Designing a model to support PPI. 4) Evaluating designed system for supporting the PPI. Results: The results of this study identified five critical steps which the PPI experienced and 14 effective interventions to support them. Preconception: care before the next pregnancy; prenatal: preparing parents to see their baby for the first time, supporting parents in breastfeeding (BF), kangaroo care (KC) and infant massage; neonatal: spiritual self-care, individualized behavioral and developmental care programs, using scales to assess infant�s behavior, supporting parents in BF, KC and infant massage, support forums for parents, relieving parents� stress, sharing information and communication, family nurture interventions, supporting parents in transferring between neonatal units (NU), facilitating collaborative care in NU; discharge: discharge planning, support forums for parents, sharing information and communication and home: home support programs, individualized behavioral and developmental care programs, supporting parents in BF, KC and infant massage. Support forums for parents, sharing information and communication. Conclusions: Our proposed system provides a parent-centered system which can be implemented to provide high-quality care for PPI. © 2017, Iranian Journal of Pediatrics.