Understanding mothers experience of caring for a preterm infant: An exploratory study

A mother is the primary caregiver for a preterm infant and therefore the primary medium to deliver early intervention therapy. Therefore, the mother is the primary focus for the health care professional to deliver the family-centred practice. Understanding the mother’s experience is an asset to provide the individual and context-specific therapy to the infant. However, most of the literature reviewed were on the western population. As socio-economic, cultural and contextual factors influence caring for the infant, the findings of studies from other cultures may not be generalizable to the Indian context. There is a paucity of literature in the Indian context with the only available study that reported moderate compliance with early intervention at home. To bridge that gap, it imperative to understand the mother’s experience

The study aims to understand the mothers’ experiences of caring for her preterm infant in NICU and at Home.