ABSTRACT
While illness and treatments may have adverse effects on the rapidly developing brain, the environment of care, e.g. the neonatal intensive care unit, is in itself a source of stress for preterm infants and their families. Although it is accepted that fetal development and in-utero experience may not be the appropriate theoretical model for our understanding of the newborn environment and the delivery of care, it seems appropriate to mimic the uterine environment where practically possible in infants born preterm. However, delivering critical care in such circumstances is complex and it is important to acknowledge the difficulties of combining the ‘art’ and ‘science’, the technological treatments and the humanitarian acts of nurture and how they can be combined to best effect. Apart from the management of the infant, psychosocial support of the parents and extended family/friends can be seen in the ways we deliver family-centred care, for example, promoting breastfeeding, parent-infant attachment and dealing with anxiety, depression or hostility (Harrison 1993).
