Mexican immigrant families' beliefs and goals for their infants in the neonatal intensive care unit

This article presents a study of Mexican immigrant families' beliefs and go als about caregiving and development for their infants with prematurity, lo w birth weight, and/or intensive health care needs, as well as their experi ences with neonatal intensive care services. Interviews with six families w ere conducted primarily in Spanish, transcribed, and analyzed in a structur ed procedure following one major tradition of qualitative research. The stu dy revealed that the Mexican immigrant families had distinct caregiving bel iefs for their infants, and certain hospital practices were different from their beliefs and customs. Communication and cultural barriers were identif ied stressors for families in the neonatal intensive care unit. Extended fa mily members were described as a valuable source of support and information about health and infant caregiving practices. Implications for neonatal in tensive care service delivery and suggestions for further research are disc ussed.