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Challenges Parents Face in Neonatal Intensive Care
What challenges do parents face when their premature baby is in intensive care? Should parents be allowed to stay overnight, if so does it lead them to be more stressed? Are they bad parents because they do not stay or do they need to be more involved?
The whole perspective of a child being in intensive care is hard, and especially for parents who do not know how to handle the situation of having their newborn baby in intensive care. There are many challenges that parents face; facing emotional problems is the biggest challenge. Not knowing how to handle the whole situation of seeing their new born child in a situation like intensive care is pretty hard. It is pretty intimidating and not being to take care and be able to hold their baby all day like they would want to, is also hard. Parents face high levels of distress, anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms. Mothers have a harder time dealing with their emotions. They carried their baby inside them for several months, have felt the kicks and the movements, and they often feel like a failure feeling guilt and shame. A mother wants the best for their baby and they often think that their baby will have complications with growth and development, and often blaming themselves for giving birth to an unhealthy baby wondering what they could have done differently. Because of the parents stress and anxiety of not knowing what will happen, there is an inability to preform a normal parenting role. Perhaps the best way for parents to be able to relax and be more helpful to their babies is to move on from the situation and only look forward the health of the child. Parents also loose one of the best memories they wish they could keep fo...

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...tant as well. One will want to spend as much time possible with their baby in the NICU. Getting as much sleep as possible, exercise, and knowing how to manage stress is crucial, otherwise one can become sick and in that state it will be hardly impossible to be able to visit the baby because of how fast germs can spread. Packing healthy snacks for the day while being in the NICU is an easy way to take care of oneself, and not having to rely on hospital cafeteria that one may not like.
One must accept the fact that ones newborn has to live away from home, for the babies survival. Creating a home away from hope can make things seem smoother and one can cope better. Putting family photos around the incubator or personal clothing that one had bought, blankets, pajamas, etc. can make it easier to accept the situation and to look forward for a long healthy life together.

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