• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of TUScholarShareCommunitiesDateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsGenresThis CollectionDateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsGenres

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Help

    AboutPeoplePoliciesHelp for DepositorsData DepositFAQs

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    "It's Like a Different Kind of Parenting": Constructions of Good and Bad Parenting in Neonatal Intensive Care

    • CSV
    • RefMan
    • EndNote
    • BibTex
    • RefWorks
    Thumbnail
    Name:
    Kallan_temple_0225E_11512.pdf
    Size:
    947.4Kb
    Format:
    PDF
    Download
    Genre
    Thesis/Dissertation
    Date
    2013
    Author
    Kallan, Joanna Cohen
    Advisor
    Condran, Gretchen
    Committee member
    Delaney, Kevin
    Markens, Susan, 1967-
    Department
    Sociology
    Subject
    Sociology
    Childbirth
    Medicalization
    Neonatology
    Nicu
    Nursing
    Parenting
    Permanent link to this record
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/1563
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/1545
    Abstract
    This research examines the structure of the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), a venue that juxtaposes a highly technological and medical setting against the care and nurturing of child by her parents. In this site, parents must construct and refine their definition of what it means to be a good parent in the context of the environment, medical professionals' expertise, and their child's hospitalization. At the same time, the health professionals on the unit are also impacted by their own experiences, preconceptions, and faith in medicine. Particularly relevant actors are the registered nurses, who care for babies but interact with parents; how nurses conceive of the parenting role influences the nature of this interaction, and therefore the experience of the parents in the unit. Yet nurses' definition of good parenting in the NICU often contradicts that of parents, and those who fail to meet the nurses' definition may find themselves labeled bad parents. Data for this research was collected in two urban NICUs. Mixed qualitative methods were used in the form of participant observation and in-depth interviews with both parents and staff members at both institutions, to the end of uncovering themes regarding commonalities of characterizations of good and bad parenting. Findings demonstrate that in constructing a definition of good parenting, parents medicalized themselves in the context of the NICU. Many incorporated medicalization into the parental role by accepting the notion that they could help to heal their baby, not just through care work but by actively taking on responsibilities that they felt could be beneficial. Parents' definitions of good parenting also included relying on the opinions of medical experts, which demonstrated a faith in the professionalization of medicine and the medicalization of childbirth and child care. Nurses' conceptions of what made up a good parent included deference. Many believed that parents needed to do what was best for the baby, defining this in part by stating that it meant listening to the experts, including themselves. Taking a Foucauldian approach to examine the position of nurses in the hospital, this fulfilled a need many nurses had to be respected for their skills and feel powerful on the unit. Additionally, nurses would label those whom they did not feel were meeting their parameters for being a good parent as bad parents, which often involved judging parents on the basis of their actions before or during their pregnancy. Parents were also judged based on how they acted in the unit. The bad parent label was applied both to parents who had confidence in their own abilities to parent while in the NICU, and also to mothers with a history of drug abuse. In accordance with labeling theory, once this label was affixed, it impacted the way that nurses and other staff treated parents and viewed all of their activities. The recent nature of this work reflects the impact of the newest technological innovations on the parental experience. This includes the increasingly sophisticated medical equipment in the NICU, what this has meant in terms of pushing the limits of viability, and the ability of parents to access information via the Internet. It also demonstrates the gap in parents' and nurses' ideas in the NICU, validating the place of sociology in discussions of family-centered care.
    ADA compliance
    For Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.edu
    Collections
    Theses and Dissertations

    entitlement

     
    DSpace software (copyright © 2002 - 2023)  DuraSpace
    Temple University Libraries | 1900 N. 13th Street | Philadelphia, PA 19122
    (215) 204-8212 | scholarshare@temple.edu
    Open Repository is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
     

    Export search results

    The export option will allow you to export the current search results of the entered query to a file. Different formats are available for download. To export the items, click on the button corresponding with the preferred download format.

    By default, clicking on the export buttons will result in a download of the allowed maximum amount of items.

    To select a subset of the search results, click "Selective Export" button and make a selection of the items you want to export. The amount of items that can be exported at once is similarly restricted as the full export.

    After making a selection, click one of the export format buttons. The amount of items that will be exported is indicated in the bubble next to export format.