The Impact of NIDCAP on Parental Stress in the NICU: A Narrative Review
| Author | Zahra Gholipour Soleimani | en |
| Author | Mohammad Heidarzadeh | en |
| Author | Fatemeh Moaddab | en |
| Orcid | Fatemeh Moaddab [0000-0003-0811-8671] | en |
| Issued Date | 2026-04-30 | en |
| Abstract | Context: Despite the increasing number of premature infants requiring admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), mortality rates have decreased, underscoring the critical role of specialized early postnatal care. NICU hospitalization imposes substantial parental stress, which evidence suggests can be mitigated through active parental involvement. The Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) provides continuous, individualized, multidisciplinary neonatal support; however, its implementation and uptake remain limited. Evidence Acquisition: This narrative review was conducted by searching Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Magiran. The search strategy used Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)-based keywords, including "Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program," "NIDCAP," "neonatal care," "neonatal intensive care," "NICU," "developmental care," "stress," "anxiety," "parents," and "parental." Articles were collected without time restrictions through December 2024. Results: After duplicate, irrelevant, and unavailable full-text papers were excluded, 32 papers were reviewed. Evidence indicates that NIDCAP reduces stress by creating an environment tailored to each infant’s specific condition and by involving parents in the care process, while also strengthening relationships and empathy between parents and medical staff. NIDCAP also enables parents to be present in the intensive care unit without restrictions, increases parents’ awareness, and helps establish effective communication between parents and medical staff, thereby reducing parental anxiety and stress. Conclusions: Given the positive results observed following the implementation of NIDCAP, programs should be designed to familiarize care and treatment teams with this care model and to promote NIDCAP-based care in NICUs. | en |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.69107/cphh-169057 | en |
| URI | https://brieflands.com/journals/cphh/articles/169057 | en |
| Keyword | Neonatal Intensive Care | en |
| Keyword | Developmental Care | en |
| Keyword | Parents | en |
| Keyword | Stress | en |
| Publisher | Brieflands | en |
| Title | The Impact of NIDCAP on Parental Stress in the NICU: A Narrative Review | en |
| Type | Review Article | en |
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