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Park and Lee: Experience of Becoming a Father of a High Risk Premature Infant
Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing 2017; 47(2): 277-288.

Published online: 28 April 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2017.47.2.277

Experience of Becoming a Father of a High Risk Premature Infant

Jeong Eon Park1, Byoung Sook Lee2

1Department of Nursing, Uiduk University, Gyeongju, Korea.

2College of Nursing, Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea.

Address reprint requests to : Lee, Byoung Sook. College of Nursing, Keimyung University, 1095 Dalgubuldaero, Dalseo-gu, Daegu 42601, Korea. Tel: +82-53-580-3908 Fax: +82-53-580-3616, lbs@gw.kmu.ac.kr

Received 26 September 2016       Revised 11 January 2017       Accepted 13 March 2017

© 2017 Korean Society of Nursing Science

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/) If the original work is properly cited and retained without any modification or reproduction, it can be used and re-distributed in any format and medium.

Abstract

Purpose

This study was performed to identify the experience of becoming a father of a high risk premature infant.

Methods

Grounded theory was used for this research. The participants were 12 fathers who had premature infants lighter than 2,500g of birth weight, less than 37 weeks of gestational age and having stayed 2 weeks or longer in a NICU right after birth. Theoretical sampling was done to identify participants and indepth interviews were done for the data collection. For data analysis, the process suggested by Corbin and Strauss was used.

Results

For these participants the core phenomenon of the experience of becoming a father of a high risk premature infant was ‘striving through with belief and patience’. The phenomenon was ‘being frustrated in an unrealistic shock’. Contextual conditions were ‘uncertainty in the health status of the premature baby’ and ‘no one to ask for help’ and intervening conditions were ‘possibility in the health recovery of the premature baby’ and ‘assistance from significant others’. Action/interaction strategies were ‘withstanding with belief in the baby’ and ‘enduring with willpower as head of the family’ and the consequence was ‘becoming a guardian of the family’.

Conclusion

For the participants, the process of becoming the father of a high risk premature infant was striving through the situation with belief in their babies' ability to overcome the crisis and waiting for the babies' recovery with patience.

Keywords: Premature infant, Father, life experience, Qualitative research

Figures and Tables

Figure 1

The process of the ‘Becoming a father of a high risk premature infant’.

jkan-47-277-g001
Table 1

Categories of Experience of Becoming a Father of a High Risk Premature Infant

jkan-47-277-i001
Dimensions Categories Subcategories
Phenomenon Being frustrated in unrealistic shock Being embarrassed because of unexpected premature birth
Feeling of frustration due to the incapability of doing anything
Existing baby who is not accepted as an actual entity
Contextual condition Uncertainty as to the status of the premature baby Uncertainty in the premature baby’s health recovery
Uncertainty in the premature baby’s normal growth
No one to ask for help Accumulation of physical & economic burdens
Disarrangement in family and social relationships
Lack of knowledge for nurturing high-risk premature baby
Action Withstanding with belief in the baby Waiting for the healthy recovery of the baby
Believing the baby will overcome the crisis
Enduring with the willpower as head of the family Having a strong mind as head of the family
Actively getting through the family’s hardships
Intervening condition Possibility in the healthy recovery of the premature baby The baby overcoming the crisis
Hope from the good experiences of others in nurturing premature babies
Assistance from significant others Assistance in housework and financial support
Encouragement & emotional support from family members and friends
Consequence Becoming the guardian of the family Reestablishment of the paternal identify
New understanding about the family
Having life with the family

Notes

This manuscript is a revision of the first author’s doctoral dissertation from Keimyung University.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors declared no conflict of interest.

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