Jaqueline de Lima

The birth of a child symbolises for parents the idealisation of a moment marked by various expectations, anxieties and changes in their lives. The hospitalisation of a newborn (NB) in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) generates feelings of sadness, fear and stress in the parents, as they feel fragile and insecure about their child’s life. We therefore decided to carry out this study in order to provide insight and understanding into the experiences of parents in the context of their children being admitted to the NICU. At the same time, we hope to broaden our knowledge of NB health care, with a view to the interaction of parents in their child’s recovery, involving the whole family, in order to promote humanised care. The general objective of this study was to analyse the perception of parents of premature NBs regarding their stay in the NICU, and the specific objectives were to characterise the socio-demographic profile of parents of premature NBs admitted to the NICU, to ascertain how parents of premature NBs perceive the reception during their stay in the NICU, and to understand the feelings experienced by parents of premature NBs.