Stress experiences of parents with premature infants in a special care nursery

A controlled prospective longitudinal study was carried out to determine the stress experiences of parents whose premature infants were admitted to a tertiary-based special care nursery in Melbourne, Australia. The control group consisted of parents of term infants matched on maternal age, parity and socioeconomic status. Sixty mothers and 59 fathers of premature infants and 60 mothers and fathers of term infants were followed from birth to 16 weeks after discharge home. A range of repeated self-reports was carried out regarding feelings, moods, marital/partner relationships, availability and satisfaction with perceived social support and salivary markers of stress (cortisol and tribulin) were collected. Assessments occurred on five occasions with parents of premature infants and with parents of healthy term infants, data were collected on three occasions. Findings revealed that parents of premature infants reported higher subjective stress levels than parents of term infants within the first week of their infant's birth but returned lower objective markers of stress. There was no correlation between self-reported stress and the biochemical markers of stress. The stress levels for parents of premature infants reduced over time. Issues for future research are discussed.