Newborn baby in the neonatal unit: the mother’s glance

Abstract

The birth of a premature baby who has some pathology that needs internment in a neonatal unit is usually a reason of concern for the family, especially for the mother, who has to be away from her baby soon after birth. We aimed to identify, in this research, the meaning of a newborn baby’s internment in a neonatal unit for the mother. This is a descriptive study of qualitative approach, accomplished at a maternity in Fortaleza-CE. The subjects of the research were nine mothers that were with their babies in a neonatal unit in February of 2006. For the data collection we used the technique of interview. The speeches were submitted to the content analysis. The themes which emerged were: fear, separation, anxiety and sadness. We concluded that it is pertinent an effective a communication channel with those mothers during the internment period, to soften the feeling resulted from such experience.