Charlotte Angelhoff

Time of initiation of skin-to-skin contact in extremely preterm infants in Sweden

Aim:  To describe the time of first skin‐to‐skin contact in extremely preterm infants in a national perspective and to investigate possible factors affecting the time of first skin‐to‐skin contact.

Sleep of Parents Living With a Child Receiving Hospital-Based Home Care: A Phenomenographical Study.

BackgroundCaring for an ill child at home gives the family the chance to be together in a familiar environment. However, this involves several nocturnal sleep disturbances, such as frequent awakenings and bad sleep quality, which may affect parents’ ability to take care of the child and themselves. ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to describe parents’ perceptions of circumstances influencing their own sleep when living with a child enrolled in hospital-based home care (HBHC) services. MethodThis is a phenomenographical study with an inductive, exploratory design. Fifteen parents (11 mothers and 4 fathers) with children enrolled in HBHC services were interviewed. Data were analyzed to discover content-related categories describing differences in ways parents experienced sleep when caring for their children receiving HBHC. ResultsFour descriptive categories were detected: sleep influences mood and mood influences sleep; support influences safeness and safeness influences sleep; the child’s needs influence routines and routines influence sleep; and “me time” influences sleep. DiscussionSleep does not affect only the parents’ well-being but also the child’s care. Symptoms of stress may limit the parents’ capacity to meet the child’s needs. Support, me time, and physical activity were perceived as essential sources for recovery and sleep. It is important for nurses to acknowledge parental sleep in the child’s nursing care plan and help the parents perform self-care to promote sleep and maintain life, health, and well-being.

Effect of skin-to-skin contact on parents’ sleep quality, mood, parent-infant interaction and cortisol concentrations in neonatal care units: study protocol of a randomised controlled trial

Introduction Separation after preterm birth is a major stressor for infants and parents. Skin-to-skin contact (SSC) is a method of care suitable to use in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to minimise separation between parents and infants. Less separation leads to increased possibilities for parent-infant interaction, provided that the parents’ sleep quality is satisfactory. We aimed to evaluate the effect of continuous SSC on sleep quality and mood in parents of preterm infants born <33 weeks of gestation as well as the quality of parent-infant interaction and salivary cortisol concentrations at the time of discharge. Methods and analysis A randomised intervention study with two arms—intervention versus standard care. Data will be collected from 50 families. Eligible families will be randomly allocated to intervention or standard care when transferred from the intensive care room to the family-room in the NICU. The intervention consists of continuous SSC for four consecutive days and nights in the family-room. Data will be collected every day during the intervention and again at the time of discharge from the hospital. Outcome measures comprise activity tracker (Actigraph); validated self-rated questionnaires concerning sleep, mood and bonding; observed scorings of parental sensitivity and emotional availability and salivary cortisol. Data will be analysed with pairwise, repeated measures, Mann Whitney U-test will be used to compare groups and analysis of variance will be used to adjust for different hospitals and parents’ gender. Ethics and dissemination The study is approved by the Regional Research Ethics Board at an appropriate university (2016/89–31). The results will be published in scientific journals. We will also use conferences and social media to disseminate our findings. Trial registration number NCT03004677.