Exploratory study of fathers providing Kangaroo Care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Qiuxia Dong, Mary Steen, Dianne Wepa and 1 others
PMID 35712782WHAT IT FOUND
Fathers in a neonatal unit described skin-to-skin care as moving from nervousness to calm, connection and confidence.
Seven had not known fathers could do it, so nurses may need to introduce it explicitly.
Key findings
01Fathers described Kangaroo Care as a sequence from nervousness to calm, connection and confidence.
02Seven of the ten fathers had no prior awareness of Kangaroo Care and learned about it through experience.
03Fathers reported challenges, including competing priorities and physical discomfort during Kangaroo Care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The analysed sample was only 10 fathers in one Australian NICU, so the findings may not apply to other settings, cultures or family arrangements. Recruitment used purposive sampling and was done by nursing staff and the primary researcher, who was a neonatal nurse at the site and knew some participants, which may have influenced responses. Only fathers who were English proficient and had provided at least one Kangaroo Care session of more than 1 hour were included, so experiences of fathers who could not or did not participate are not represented. The study reached data saturation at 10 interviews, and two consented fathers were not followed up, so it describes a limited set of experiences rather than all fathers in the unit.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as evidence that Kangaroo Care improves infant or father health outcomes. The study describes the experiences of 10 fathers in one NICU and cannot show an effect.