Experiences of mothers during child’s hospital stay in intensive care unit

Abstract

Background: The birth of a child is a significant event in the life of every family. However, when a child is in a critical condition and needs to be hospitalized, mothers experience various difficulties. When a child is hospitalized in the intensive care unit, the family becomes especially vulnerable and frightened. Aim: To describe and better understand the experience of mothers whose children were hospitalized in the ICU, and to find out what kind of relationship develops between mothers and healthcare professionals during this period. Method: A qualitative research method and semi‐structured interviews were used. A total of 10 participants were interviewed during January 2020. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Data analysis identified 4 themes that answered the research questions: (1) Mothers trying to adapt into an ICU environment; (2) Perform to the unexpected new role of mother; (3) Relationship is like a rollercoaster between spouses; and (4) Living in a relationship with healthcare professionals. Conclusions: It was discovered that mothers experience different feelings about their children and their stay in the ICU. They also have feelings about their relationship with their spouse, their shift to a mother’s role, and relationship with healthcare professionals. They tend to have feelings of hope, guilt, confusion as well as rejection of undesirable situations, and frightening scenes from the ICU environment accompany them throughout the entire period of their stay in the ICU. In general, relations with healthcare professionals are defined as quite good. Awareness of the maternal experience and suffering in a critical situation could help nurses develop interventions to assess mothers' needs for communication and give support, thus helping to actively introduce family‐centered practices in intensive care units.