The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study is to increase our understanding of how fathers learn to parent when they have a preterm infant. Effective clinical interventions depend on the professional's ability to understand the personal and family/cultural meanings that influence fathering to better coach fathers of preterm infants during their transition to fatherhood The aims of the study are designed to (a) reveal stressful episodes and coping practices of fathers of preterm infants during hospitalization and the transition home, (b) examine resources and bankers to father-infant relationship development over time, (c) describe how fathers learn practical caregiving skills, and (d) discover how a father's own personal beliefs/meanings about himself, family, fatherhood, and work affect his transition to fathering. Eight Caucasian fathers of preterm infants will be interviewed every 2 weeks during their infant's NICU stay and then once a month at home for 4 months after discharge. These interviews will generate detailed narratives of specific coping, relationship, caregiving, and belief/meaning episodes that will be analyzed in the interpretive phenomenological tradition.
| Pohlman, Shawn (2005) The primacy of work and fathering preterm infants: findings from an interpretive phenomenological study. Adv Neonatal Care 5:204-16 |
