BARRIERS OF PARENTING IN MOTHERS WITH A VERY-LOWBIRTH-WEIGHT PRETERM INFANT, AND THEIR COPING STRATEGIES

Becoming a mother is one of the most important life changing events that a
woman experiences. Clearly the birth of very-low-birth-weight preterm infants imposes many
challenges for the mothers. There is insufficient information regarding the mothers' experiences on the
process of becoming a mother when their preterm infants are in neonatal intensive care units (NICU).
The aim of this study was to explore the women´s experiences of barriers of parenting and coping
strategies when their preterm infants were born with a very-low-birth-weight.
Materials & Methods: This study was conducted based on qualitative approach and by focusing on
content analysis. 18 mothers were observed and interviewed while their baby was in hospital. The
interviews were recorded and printed out. The data were analyzed according to Graneheim and
Lundman. MAXQDA2007 was applied to manage the data.
Results: The participants’ experience indicated that they experienced barriers in becoming a mother,
so they use some strategies to cope with this situation. Merging the "barriers of parenting" and
"applied strategies" resulted in extracting a category which was called "establishment of
communication". Each category included subcategories.
Conclusion: The study led to the understanding of the experiences of mothers of very low birth
weight neonates. Becoming aware about the barriers of becoming a mother in women with very-lowbirth-weight neonates can help the health care providers, especially the nurses and midwives, to
overcome the mentioned barriers, and consequently to improve child care quality