Posttraumatic stress disorder and the NICU graduate mother

The birth of a premature baby represents a time of significant psychological stress for parents. Maternal psychological discord can severely impact on a baby’s cognitive and emotional development, interrupt the parent-infant bonding process and indirectly affect patient care and outcomes. This paper will describe posttraumatic stress disorder and its associated symptoms, look at the evidence for this condition among mothers of premature infants and outline the implications and recommendations for clinical practice.