Gender differences in reasons, facilitators, and barriers for parental presence in the NICU

Journal article, 2013

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore gender differences in reasons, facilitators, and barriers for parental presence in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) based on statistical analyses of secondary data. Background: Factors that may influence parental presence should be taken into careful consideration by NICU staff. These factors are likely to differ between genders, as research studies demonstrated that mothers tend to spend more time with their preterm infants in the NICU than the fathers. Methods: The study was based on secondary data, which was obtained, corrected, and analysed with Fisher’s exact test. Findings: For control reasons, a larger proportion of fathers are present at the NICU than mothers. A larger proportion of fathers, as compared to mothers, perceive difficult socio-economic situations as a barrier for parental presence. In contrast, mothers perceive goodquality treatment by hospital staff as a facilitator and poor treatments as a barrier for parental presence. Conclusion: Reasons, facilitators, and barriers for parental presence should be considered in order to increase parental presence in the NICU.