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They Say: NICU Stay Can Cause PTSD For Parents
When I had my first baby, I shared my room with a young woman who’d delivered her daughter prematurely. I felt so bad for her; here I was with this healthy, crying baby while hers was stuck in the NICU. When she left the second day I was there, her baby stayed behind. I’ve thought of her often through the years and wondered how she and her little girl fared.
Some interesting new studies are now finding that having a baby endure a long stay in the NICU can actually cause post-traumatic stress disorder in the parents. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine followed 18 parents, both mothers and fathers, whose children had spent time in the NICU. Four months later, three were diagnosed with PTSD and seven more were considered high risk.
A Duke University interviewed 30 parents six months after their baby’s due date and found 29 had either two or three PTSD symptoms and 16 had all three.
Dr. Richard J. Shaw, an associate professor of child psychiatry at Stanford and author of the Stanford study, said there are several traumas associated with giving birth to a premature baby. First, there’s the trauma of the unexpected delivery itself. The, there’s seeing your baby undergo traumatic medical procedures and life-threatening events. And there’s also the fact that the bad stuff keeps happening.
“It’s different from a car accident or an assault or rape, where you get a single trauma and it’s over and you have to deal with it. With a preemie, every time you see your baby the experience comes up again,” Shaw says.
One of the problems the studies are uncovering is that when the parent is ready to talk about their difficult experience, friends and family often expect them to have moved on and aren’t as willing to listen. Something to keep in mind, if someone close to you has experienced it.
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8 Comments
Carly commented on Aug 28 09 at 12:56 pmas a mom of a preemie, this would explain a lot thats been going on with my husband and i in the last 2 years.
The Modern Man commented on Aug 28 09 at 1:34 pmIt’s running 2 yrs I become dady. I’m lucky that there was no problem with my wife. My baby is still healthy. I’m very lucky in this matter.
Get a girlfriend
Knitty commented on Aug 29 09 at 9:45 amI missed her and felt sad that our first few days were spent apart, but mostly I was (and remain) incredibly grateful to have access to a NICU where my sick newborn was given the very best of care.
ann05 commented on Aug 31 09 at 8:40 pmYou think? Luckily I was able to seek help from a great counselor after our NICU stay (not for prematurity, but birth complications), was diagnosed with PTSD, and got help.
Kathy commented on Sep 22 09 at 1:45 pmHaving had a son in the NICU since he was gestationally 28 weeks old, I was recently diagnosed with PTSD. Whenever I enter the NICU, it’s with the understanding that something may have gone terribly wrong in the time I have been away. Whenever my phone shows the NICU is calling, my heart pounds until I hear the innocuous comment or question. Whenever I see more than 1 person in scrubs near my child, I panic. It’s wonderful that this is being discussed — if only the social workers in the high risk pregnancy ward and NICU were as versed with the parental situation as this blog. Then, they could educate parents and help them find assistance sooner rather than later. I am fortunate that I recognized the effects of the experience on my mental equalibrium and sought help. Now if I could only get him home with me!
Andrea commented on Dec 13 09 at 9:38 pmMy 14 mth old son was in the NICU for one week and my blood pressure, which had never risen above 110/50 during my entire pregnancy skyrocketed to 200/140 during the week he was there. I felt at times my head was going to explode!! While I never was diagnosed with PTSD, as an earlier commenter remarked, it would explain some of the difficulties my husband and I had after the birth. Luckily, my son is completely fine today and my marriage is back on track but people underestimate the impact of a stay in the NICU, however short.
Erin commented on Jun 20 11 at 7:17 pmMy full-term son, who was expected to be born perfectly healthy, was Life Flighted at birth to a bigger hospital and then had a 30 day NICU stay. Fortunately, it brought my husband and I closer together, but it really did (and still does) feel like trauma. Little reminders of it -pictures from that time, songs that were popular at the time, etc. – can bring both of us to tears. We both really want more children, but are also terrified that we will relive this experience.
Brenda Garcia commented on Jun 26 11 at 3:00 pmI had a hard time when my twin daughters stayed in the NICU for 3 weeks. Before I got released to go home, I went to go see my babies in the NICU. I carried one of my twins but I couldnt hold my other one. I asked the nurse if could if only for a minute. So she let me. Then I put her down and she got mad at me and told me I shouldnt favor one over the other one. And as she was fixing my baby she handled her rough. Then I felt like if I was a terrible mother, because I never intended to favor one over the other. And then I told the nurse that another nurse had told me she needed to rest. Because she had been crying and the doctors were monitoring her more than her twin. And I also told the head nurse in charge of the incident. I left the hospital crying because of what had happened and because I had left the hospital without them. But one of the social workers in the hospital asked me what was wrong. So I told her what had happened and the nurse that had been rude to me was no longer taking care of my daughters in the NICU. But ever since the incident I would call the NICU to check on my daughters when I wasnt there. I felt like that nurse had taken my piece of mind away, to know that it wouldnt happen again.
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