Exploring the psychological experiences and resiliency practices of Navajo mothers who give birth to and care for a premature infant in a rural-serving neonatal intensive care unit

Tarazi, Chelsey Lynn (2021) Exploring the psychological experiences and resiliency practices of Navajo mothers who give birth to and care for a premature infant in a rural-serving neonatal intensive care unit. Doctoral thesis, Northern Arizona University.

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Abstract

According to recent statistics, Indigenous mothers have one of the highest percentages of preterm births in the U.S. when compared to white mothers (Sparks et al., 2005). During 2011 to 2013, the premature birth rate in Arizona for Indigenous mothers was 14.2% compared to 10.6% for white mothers (March of Dimes, 2015). Yet, little research exists about the experiences of Indigenous mothers of premature infants in the NICU environment. For Navajo mothers, the rurality of many family homes, combined with cultural differences between mothers and hospital staff, create potential barriers to mother-infant bonding and the learning that must take place for mothers to care for infants once the infants graduate from the NICU. The purpose of this study was to explore Navajo mothers’ lived experiences before and after the birth of their premature infants, and while their premature infants are cared for in a rural-serving medical center NICU in the Southwestern U.S. To explore Navajo mothers’ lived experiences, three individuals separately participated in a demographics survey and an hour-long semi-structured interview conducted virtually. The use of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) for all three transcripts resulted in the emergence of three super-ordinate themes with subsequent sub-themes. Results revealed that resiliency during the perinatal period was salient for all three mothers, in particular the practice of cultural resiliency through traditional methods. Furthermore, the results highlight the need for individualized and culturally responsive treatment for Navajo and Indigenous mothers who visit and care for their high-risk or preterm infants in traditional Western healthcare settings.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Publisher’s Statement:	© Copyright is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Keywords:	mothers; Navajo; neonatal; prematurity; resiliency; rural-serving
Subjects:	R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics > RJ101 Child Health. Child health services
MeSH Subjects:	M Named Groups > M01 Persons
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Student
Department/Unit:	Graduate College > Theses and Dissertations College of Education > Educational Psychology
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2022 17:25
Last Modified:	26 Aug 2022 08:30
URI:	https://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/5703

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