Edinburgh Napier University

  The emotional distress resulting from the experience of giving birth to
a preterm infant (gestational age , 37 weeks) and the subsequent neonatal unit
hospitalisation may be a traumatic experience for parents. In the present systematic
literature review, studies on parental posttraumatic symptomatology following birth of
a premature infant were reviewed. A total of 5 studies were identified. All studies
reviewed found that posttraumatic symptomatology is quite common in parents or
primary caregivers of premature infants. However, methodological weaknesses of
relevant studies (e.g. use of convenience samples, lack of pre – delivery assessments)
make it difficult to draw consistent conclusions regarding prevalence of posttraumatic
symptomatology in this population group or whether the experience of a premature birth
could be responsible for the development of PTSD. Directions for future research are discussed.