A qualitative study of recorded telephone support calls with mothers of preterm infants: Expressing both positive and negative feelings

AIM: To describe the structure and content of telephone support calls between mothers of preterm infants and support team members after hospital discharge. DESIGN: This is a qualitative study. METHODS: Data consisted of 19 recordings of telephone calls that occurred between March 2013 and December 2015. The calls were made by support team members to mothers within two weeks of discharge from the neonatal unit. Analyses were performed using content analysis. RESULTS: One category referred to what the support team members said that facilitated or did not facilitate the conversation. It was found that the support team members managed to have conversations that were tailored to the mother's current needs and conversations where the focus was on what the support team members thought was important. A second category referred to the topics the mothers talked about and that the mothers expressed both negative and positive feelings.