Abstract
Parents who have infants hospitalised in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) experience high levels of stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, whether sounds contribute to parents’ stress remains largely unknown. Critically, researchers lack a comprehensive instrument to investigate the relationship between sounds in NICUs and parental stress. To address this gap, this report presents the “Soundscape of NICU Questionnaire” (SON-Q), which was developed specifically to capture parents’ perceptions and beliefs about the impact that sound had on them and their infants, from pre-birth throughout the NICU stay and in the first postdischarge period. Parents of children born preterm (n = 386) completed the SON-Q and the Perinatal PTSD Questionnaire (PPQ). Principal Component Analysis identifying underlying dimensions comprising the parental experience of the NICU soundscape was followed by an exploration of the relationships between subscales of the SON-Q and the PPQ. Moderation analysis was carried out to further elucidate relationships between variables. Finally, thematic analysis was employed to analyse one memory of sounds in NICU open question. The results highlight systematic associations between aspects of the NICU soundscape and parental stress/trauma. The findings underscore the importance of developing specific studies in this area and devising interventions to best support parents’ mental health, which could in turn support infants’ developmental outcomes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 644 |
| Journal | Children |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 27 Jul 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Funding
This study was successful in developing a novel tool to investigate parents’ experience with the soundscape in NICUs. The study highlights associations between the soundscape in NICUs and parental stress. Additionally, it provides initial suggestions to stimulate further research, audience involvement and interdisciplinary collaborations aiming to improve parents’ mental health, as well as supporting early bonding and facilitating positive developmental outcomes for infants in need of intensive care. Some practical considerations and suggestions for future research are as follows: (i) It is important to address parents’ needs in order to support their mental health. For instance, being delivered in a family-centred approach in combination with Kangaroo Care, music therapy in NICUs has been shown to be beneficial, helping to reduce parents’ anxiety and stress and improve their mood, restfulness and motivation [136]. Additionally, it improves breastfeeding [137], relaxation [138] and parent–infant bonding [100,139], which is supported by emerging parental identity [140]. (ii) Future research is important to extend this study cross-culturally and to investigate the sonic experience of premature infants and their parents during both their NICU stay and early postdischarge across a variety of cultural and social contexts [141–144]. The convergent quantitative/qualitative results demonstrated the importance of opening a conversation between parents who have experience in NICUs, medical and nursing staff, psychologists and engineers, to plan strategies for improving the
Keywords
- Parent perinatal stress and PTSD
- Premature infant outcomes
- Prematurity
- Sound in NICUs
