The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study is to expand the understanding of the process of becoming a mother of a preterm infant during infant hospitalization, after discharge home, and within a mother's daily life.
The aims of this longitudinal study are to: (a) reveal employed mothers' transitions in coping and caring practices for preterm infants; (b)describe how employed mothers get to know their preterm infants over time, and what helps and what hinders this process; and (c) capture how employed mother's meanings of work are influenced over time by the preterm birth, personal meanings of motherhood, family relationships, and societal expectations. Eight married/co-habiting, Caucasian mothers who were employed during pregnancy will be interviewed every two weeks while their preterm infants are hospitalized in the NICU. After infant discharge, home interviews will be scheduled monthly for four months. Narratives of coping, caring practices, and getting to know the infant will be obtained in repeated interviews allowing for examination of transitions as they occur over time in specific hospital, family, and social contexts. The study's findings may improve the understanding of the process of mothering preterm infants, and will better inform health care providers, parenting programs, employers, and social policy of the demands and conflicts employed mothers experience. Clinical interventions and services may be enriched or developed based on this new understanding.
