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Parental perception of pain in premature babies in neonatal intensive care unit: a qualitative study

Journal of Perinatology (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To examine parents’ awareness and perceptions of their premature baby’s experience of pain, due to invasive procedures performed during admission to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Study Design

Parents of premature babies, who had been admitted to NICU, were recruited from a tertiary hospital in Singapore. Fifteen semi-structured interviews, with individual parents, were conducted. Data were analyzed using a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach including constant comparison and iterative coding. and theoretical sampling.

Results

Eleven mothers and four fathers were interviewed. A central theme of ‘Adjustment’ was identified with four key aspects: (1) Acknowledging the pain, (2) Seeking assurance, (3) Parental presence, and (4) Learning entrustment.

Conclusion

Attention to parent’s needs associated with their perception of neonatal pain, will facilitate the transition to parenthood and support development of parental identity and competence in those with premature infants in NICU.

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Data availability

Data is available upon request.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation, National University Hospital, Singapore, Singapore

    Su Ren Wong & Gregory Sin

  2. Health and Social Sciences Cluster, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore, Singapore

    Su Ren Wong, Ingrid M. Wilson, Lester E. Jones, Eunice Jun Lu Teo, Sing Ting Joy Chong, Jasmine Ling Xuan Chia & Gregory Sin

  3. Judith Lumley Centre, Latrobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Ingrid M. Wilson & Lester E. Jones

  4. Therapy Hub, Children Services, SPD, Singapore, Singapore

    Eunice Jun Lu Teo

  5. Department of Rehabilitation, Ng Teng Foong General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore

    Sing Ting Joy Chong

  6. Department of Rehabilitation, St Luke’s Eldercare, Singapore, Singapore

    Jasmine Ling Xuan Chia

  7. Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Zubair Amin

  8. Department of Neonatology, Khoo Teck Puat-National University Children’s Medical Institute, National University Hospital, Singapore, Singapore

    Zubair Amin

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  1. Su Ren Wong
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Contributions

SRW had oversight of the entire process of the study from conceptualization, designing of methodology, and supervision of all study processes including data collection and data analysis and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. IMW provided expert guidance on designing the methodology, data analysis, and validation of study data. LEJ conceptualized the study, and provided expertise in designing the methodology, supervision, and validation of study data. EJLT, STJC, JLXC, and GS assisted with writing the initial draft of the manuscript, data collection, data curation and data analysis. ZA conceptualized the study, and assisted with the project management and data validation. All authors were involved in reviewing and editing the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Su Ren Wong.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Singapore Institute of Technology - Institutional Review Board (Reference No: 2022154). Informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study. All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.

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Wong, S.R., Wilson, I.M., Jones, L.E. et al. Parental perception of pain in premature babies in neonatal intensive care unit: a qualitative study. J Perinatol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-025-02341-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-025-02341-x

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