A systems model of premature birth. Implications for neonatal intensive care.

The literature regarding the birth of a premature infant strongly suggests that it is a crisis-producing event for the parents of such infants. It also suggests that premature infants are poorly parented more frequently than infants born after a normal gestation. The crisis of premature birth and its effect on parent-infant interaction using a systems model of crisis theory is described. Specific intervention strategies that can be used within the neonatal intensive care unit to ameliorate the potentially detrimental effects of the crisis of premature birth on parent-infant interaction are outlined.