Maternal hope-experiences in a South African Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

South Africa ranks 24th out of 184 countries with regard to its premature birth rate. According to data published by the Howson, Kinney, and Lawn (2012), eight out of every hundred babies born in South Africa are born prematurely. Giving birth prematurely can be a traumatic event (Evans & Madsen, 2005). Mothers who have premature infants in NICUs face multiple challenges and lose hope during the long period of hospitalisation (Charchuk & Simpson, 2005; Green, 2015). This study was undertaken to examine the experiences of a NICU mother and the ways in which her experiences could be related to hope. The study is theoretically framed within the field of positive psychology and hope theory, as adapted by Plaas (2007). The participant described her personal understanding of hope and how, during her period of hospitalisation, she had experienced hope by drawing from both internal and external resources. This qualitative study was conducted from within an interpretivist paradigm and an exploratory case study research design was used. The specific case was bounded by the experiences of a mother who had given birth to a premature baby with a low birth weight (less than 1,500 g) in a South African government hospital’s NICU and was housed in the mother lodger facility for the duration of the infant’s NICU stay. Purposive sampling was used and data was collected during an individual in-depth interview, which included observational notes and keeping a reflective researcher’s journal. A verbatim transcript of the interview was analysed by means of an inductive thematic analysis. Primary research question: What are the hope experiences of a NICU mother at a government hospital in South Africa?