Natchanan Chivanon
Burapha University, Thailand
Title: Suffering among mothers with low birth weight infants at sick newborn care unit
Biography
Biography: Natchanan Chivanon
Abstract
This qualitative research was aimed to explore suffering among mothers with low birth weight infants. The participants consisted of 24 mothers with low birth weight infants at sick newborn care unit. In-depth interview was used to collect data at the regional public hospital in Eastern Thailand. Content analysis was performed for data analysis. The findings revealed five themes of mothers’ suffering such as mothers’ suffering characteristics: anxiety/stress, sadness, sleepless, and no appetite; causes of mothers’s suffering: fear from complication and death of infants; factors affecting mothers’ suffering: illness condition of infants, and family support; the means to soften suffering: creating hope, making merit, pray, and accepting infant’s condition and; outcomes of softening suffering: living with suffering, suffering softened, and having hope. The findings enhance a basic knowledge about mother’s suffering. Therefore, nurses involving with low birth weight infants and their mothers could develop the nursing intervention for soften suffering based on this findings