Integration of Maternity and Neonatal Care to Empower Parents

Objective: To describe the transition from a traditional hospital design with separate maternity and neonatal departments to a design in which maternity and neonatal health care infrastructures are integrated to empower parents.

Design: A descriptive, qualitative analysis.

Setting: A mother and child center in a teaching hospital in Amsterdam.

Participants: Six staff members who were involved in the transition.

Methods: We analyzed the content of all relevant policy reports and other related documents that were produced during the transition from April 2010 to October 2014. This content was supplemented with in-depth, semistructured interviews with the six participants. We used thematic analysis and Bravo et al.'s model of patient empowerment to analyze the documents and the qualitative interview data.

Results: We identified eight themes. At the health care system level, the four themes were Joint Vision and Goal, Integration of Three Wards Into One With Single-Family Rooms, Reorganization of the Health Care Team, and New Equipment. At the health care provider level, the three themes were Training for Extension of Professional Goals, Intensified Coaching for Parents, and Implementing Patient Centeredness. The single theme at the patient level was Opinions and Experiences of Parents.

Conclusion: We found a good fit between the new design and Bravo et al.'s model of patient empowerment. Challenges that remain include the adaptation of staff training programs and further development of the infrastructure in collaboration with staff and parents. The experiences of parents and staff members will be evaluated in future studies.