Investigating parental perspectives of the enablers and barriers to communication with their preterm infants: A narrative study.
Julia Petty, Celia Harding, Lisa Whiting
PMID 39587914WHAT IT FOUND
Mothers said neonatal staff gave inconsistent communication support.
Nurses focused on touch and skin-to-skin, while specific talking, reading cues and home follow-up varied.
Key findings
01Parents said communication was not an immediate priority after admission, and some felt their baby was the hospital's property or needed permission to open incubator doors.
02Nursing staff were described as encouraging touch and skin-to-skin, but parents said advice on specific verbal communication was less consistent.
03After discharge, parents said health visitor input often focused on weight and feeding, while communication support varied and was sometimes lacking.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only eight mothers were interviewed, all from two neonatal units, so the findings may not represent all parents, fathers, families or local services. The study reports parents' perceptions, not infant speech, language or communication outcomes, so it cannot show whether any strategy helped the baby. Interviews relied on memory and narrative accounts, which can be selective. Support varied between professionals and units, so findings may not apply to services with different staffing, policies or post-discharge pathways.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The research was funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read parents' positive descriptions of singing, talking and skin-to-skin as evidence that these strategies improve preterm infants' language. The study asked eight mothers about their experiences and did not measure infant communication outcomes.