Having a child born prematurely can plunge parents into an unknown and sometimes frightening situation, where they experience a loss of control over events and reduced decision making capacity. Preterm birth sometimes results in post-traumatic stress disorder for parents and negatively impacts on parent-child interactional patterns, especially if parents were unprepared for this eventuality. The role of information, support and early intervention in parents’ coping capacity in this situation has been noted in developmental systems theory to contribute to family interactional patterns. This paper reports on a mixed-methods study that explored the information and support needed by and available to parents following pre-term birth in England and the effect of this on their emotional well-being. The findings suggest that support systems do not always provide timely or helpful emotional or practical support to parents and this has the potential to place additional stress on family interactional patterns, especially where parents were unprepared for the possibility of pre-term birth.

中文翻译：

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“我们没有为此做好准备”

让孩子过早出生会使父母陷入未知的、有时甚至是可怕的境地，他们会失去对事件的控制并降低决策能力。早产有时会导致父母出现创伤后应激障碍，并对亲子互动模式产生负面影响，特别是如果父母对这种情况没有做好准备。在这种情况下，信息、支持和早期干预对父母应对能力的作用已在发展系统理论中被注意到，以促进家庭互动模式。本文报告了一项混合方法研究，该研究探讨了英格兰早产后父母所需和可用的信息和支持，以及这对他们情绪健康的影响。