Lived Experience of Mothers Having Preterm Newborns in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Wolaita Sodo University Comprehensive Specialized Hospital Southern Ethiopia: A Phenomenological Study

Figures & data

Table 1 Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Participants and Preterm Infants in Wolaita Sodo University Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Southern Ethiopia, 2022 (n=12)

Participant ID	Age	Educational Status	Ethnicity	Occupation	Residence	Parity	Mode of Delivery	Type of Pregnancy	Newborn Age at Birth (Weeks)	Time Spent in the NICU During Interview (Days)
IDIP01	23	Diploma	Wolaita	Employed	Urban	Multipara	SVD	Singleton	32 wks	15 days
IDIP02	24	Secondary school	Wolaita	Housewife	Rural	Primi	SVD	Twin	31 wks	17 days
IDIP03	26	Diploma	Wolaita	Employed	Urban	Primi	SVD	Singleton	34 wks	14 days
IDIP04	22	Secondary school	Wolaita	Employed	Urban	Primi	SVD	Singleton	32 wks	18 days
IDIP05	20	Secondary school	Wolaita	Housewife	Rural	Primi	C/s	Twin	33 wks	16 days
IDIP06	25	Diploma	Wolaita	Employed	Urban	Primi	C/s	Twin	31–33 wks	16 days
IDIP07	18	Grade 12th student	Wolaita	Student	Urban	Multipara	SVD	Singleton	33 wks	14 days
IDIP08	22	Primary school	Sidama	Housewife	Urban	Primi	C/s	Singleton	32 wks	26 days
IDIP09	24	Primary school	Wolaita	Housewife	Rural	Multi	SVD	Twin	32 wks	18 days
IDIP10	28	Degree	Wolaita	Employed	Urban	Multi	SVD	Twin	31 wks	15 days
IDIP11	30	Primary school	Wolaita	Housewife	Rural	Multi	SVD	Singleton	33 wks	15 days
IDIP12	25	Primary school	Wolaita	Housewife	Rural	Primi	SVD	Singleton	31 wks	16 days

Table 2 Presentation of the Themes and Sub-Themes of Mothers’ Experience with Preterm Babies in the NICU at WSUCSH, Southern Ethiopia, 2022

Themes	Sub-Themes
Mothers’ emotional experience	Feelings of shock, fear, anxiety, and worry Being between hope and despair Feelings of happiness on baby’s health improvement and faith in supreme power (God)
Sense of difference	Newborn’s appearance Altered breast feeding role and separation from their infant
Care and support to cope with the situation	Care and support from the HCPs and Hospital Family care Support and hope
Difficulties encountered during the NICU stay	Stressful NICU environment Unavailability of medicine and inadequate facilities