Fatherly feelings about child hospitalization in a neonatal unit

Abstract

Introduction: the participation of men as parents is also very important for the development of the newborn, especially when he is hospitalized. Therefore, the father must also have his needs understood and assisted in the context of neonatal care. Objective: to describe the father's feelings about the child's hospitalization in a neonatal intensive care unit. Method: this is an exploratory and descriptive study with a qualitative approach, developed in a neonatal unit of a public teaching hospital. The participants were fathers of the hospitalized newborns. Data collection took place through semistructured interviews, carried out individually in a private location. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed according to content analysis proposed by Minayo. The Research Ethics Committee of the Universidade Estadual de CampinasUnicamp approved the study under Opinion No. 1,387,229, CAAE: 50873215.9.0000.5404. Results: we conducted an interview with 21 parents, aged between 18 and 49 years old. Three thematic categories emerged from the parents' speeches: a) fatherly feelings; b) hospitalization as an arduous experience; c) coping with hospitalization through faith. The fathers demanded support throughout their child's hospitalization experience as much as mothers do. The results show that they also experience difficulties and do not know how to deal with them while trying to support their son, wife, and family. Final considerations: intentional and directed care for fathers can mitigate negative feelings and favor the positive ones that emerged in the speeches of the fathers in this study, such as love, joy, and gratitude.