Family Nurture Intervention in the NICU

Increasing number of studies demonstrating the importance of early mother-infant nurturing interaction on long-term outcomes demonstrates the need for a prevention/remedial intervention in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The foremost goal of neonatal intensive care is to ensure survival and medical stability of the infant. Within the NICU, parental involvement in care is necessarily superseded by the healthcare staff's need to assure survival. Thus, a necessary but detrimental separation between mother and infant is created at a critical period when mother-infant connection and synchrony should be developing. The physiological challenges associated with being born too soon, along with disturbances in normal mother-infant interactions, are key factors underlying the risks of premature infants for a broad range of early and midlife disorders. Not only are preterm infants at increased risk for adverse outcomes (\>50%), but up to 40% of mothers of these infants suffer from depression during the postpartum period and many mothers suffer symptoms of trauma and post-traumatic stress. Importantly, fathers of preterm infants are also at increased for postnatal depression. In addition, a recent review of 10 studies found that mothers of preterm infants are at increased risk for subsequent ischemic heart disease, stroke, atherosclerosis, and death due to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Delivery of a preterm infant has long lasting effects on both parents with both mothers and fathers reporting increased parenting stress when their infants reached 7 years of age. This study will allow examination of the immediate and long-term effects of new approach on the development of preterm infants and cardiovascular risk of their parents.