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Experiences of communication in the neonatal intensive care unit for mothers with a preferred language other than English

Journal of Perinatology volume 45, pages 767–772 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To understand the experiences of mothers with a preferred language other than English (PLOE) in communicating with staff and engaging in the care of their hospitalized infant.

Design

We qualitatively analyzed a previously collected and a prospective dataset comprised of transcripts of 36 interviews with Spanish-, Haitian Creole-, and Brazilian Portuguese-speaking mothers of preterm infants from 3 NICUs. We applied the constant comparative method to develop codes and themes, which were inductively structured using the socio-ecological framework.

Results

We identified themes across socio-ecological levels: Individual (unaddressed language barriers, varied maternal empowerment, and justification of suboptimal interpreter use); Interpersonal (family-staff language concordance facilitating engagement, positive impact of non-interpreted informal interactions, and differential treatment based on maternal language status); Institutional (system-level interpretation barriers and varied interpreter service quality).

Conclusion

Mothers with PLOE face multilevel communication and engagement barriers in the NICU; we discuss potential interventions to improve equity in these areas.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the importance of maintaining participant anonymity, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

EGCR is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program. NSK’s work was supported by AHRQ grant number T32HS000063. No specific funding was secured for this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, 01655, USA

    Nikita S. Kalluri & Margaret G. Parker

  2. Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Nikita S. Kalluri

  3. University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Rachel E. Witt

  4. Department of Pediatrics, South Shore Hospital, Weymouth, MA, 02190, USA

    Zuzanna Kubicka

  5. Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, 02118, USA

    Erika G. Cordova-Ramos

Authors
  1. Nikita S. Kalluri
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  2. Rachel E. Witt
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  3. Zuzanna Kubicka
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  4. Margaret G. Parker
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  5. Erika G. Cordova-Ramos
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Contributions

NSK conceptualized and designed the study, performed data analysis and interpretation, and drafted the initial manuscript. REW performed data analysis and interpretation. ZK recruited prospective participants and performed data analysis and interpretation. MGP conceptualized and designed the parent study and reviewed data analyses. EGCR conceptualized and designed the current and parent study, performed data analysis and interpretation, and supervised all aspects of the study. All authors critically reviewed and revised the manuscript and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nikita S. Kalluri.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The initial qualitative study was reviewed and approved by an institutional review board at Boston Medical Center (H-37245), followed by an approved amendment for the secondary analysis. The prospective interviews were deemed exempt by an institutional review board at South Shore Hospital (22-005), and a data use agreement was created for de-identified transcript sharing between researchers across institutions. Informed consent was obtained from all mothers interviewed.

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Kalluri, N.S., Witt, R.E., Kubicka, Z. et al. Experiences of communication in the neonatal intensive care unit for mothers with a preferred language other than English. J Perinatol 45, 767–772 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-025-02229-w

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