At the outset of pregnancy, most parents expect a roughly 40-week journey punctuated by the birth of a healthy baby. When a preterm birth upends these expectations, the effects extend beyond the infant; there are real psychological consequences for the parents themselves.
Treatment of Psychological Distress in Parents of Premature Infants tackles these issues, shedding light on the high prevalence of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in parents following a premature birth.
More than a dozen experts lend their expertise as they examine not only the medical and neurological consequences of premature birth on infants but also recent findings on the psychological effects of premature birth on parents -- including the particular issues that fathers experience, which receive their own chapter.
Uniquely, this volume outlines a comprehensive programmatic approach to psychological consultation in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The authors describe how to leverage common interventions -- including trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy -- in innovative ways to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and PTSD in NICU parents.
A chapter that focuses on vulnerable child syndrome underscores the implications of failing to address PTSD symptoms on parenting and child development and offers a parent-focused intervention to reduce unhealthy patterns of overprotective parenting.
The insights offered throughout the book -- as well as in the complementary online treatment manual -- will position readers to develop an entire program of psychological services, from screening to intervention, in the NICU.
"Although the benefits of psychological consultation in the pediatric setting are well established, a gap often exists between the demand for these services and funding. We have embarked on our longstanding goal to develop a group-based intervention model for parents of premature infants, adapting our manual of individual trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy to help reduce feelings of parental isolation. This book describes a more global approach to psychological consultation in the NICU integrating interventions that begin prior to the infant's conception and extend well beyond the NICU hospitalization. Chapter 1 provides a context and review of the medical aspects of the NICU environment and the neurodevelopmental consequences of prematurity. InChapter 2 reviews the common psychological reactions of mothers of premature infants, including specific risk factors associated with maternal psychological distress. It also discusses the relationship between parental posttraumatic stress and infant outcomes as it relates to such issues as breastfeeding, maternal-infant interaction, attachment, and infant development. Chapter 3 describes the form and prevalence of symptoms of paternal psychological distress and outline a curriculum for a group-based intervention specifically designed to address fathers' concerns. Chapter 4 addresses developmental care interventions that overlap with interventions more narrowly focused on parental psychological distress. Chapters 5 and 6 describe our intervention model in both the individualand group therapy formats. Chapter 7 addresses vulnerable child syndrome, which is associated with adverse developmental outcomes in children as well as overutilization of health care resources. Application of the trauma model to the concept provides a framework to understand how parental behavior is altered in the context of trauma. Finally, Chapter 8 discusses how to implement a psychological intervention program in the NICU that includes screening the parents of premature infants for symptoms of psychological distress"--
