Introduction: Premature infants are born before the 37th pregnancy week is completed. In most cases, they must be treated in the Section for intensive care and therapy, and they must be placed in an incubator. Purpose: The purpose of this diploma paper is to present with the help of professional literature the characteristics of a premature infant and the most common problems that may occur immediately after birth or shortly after it. Further on, the author focused on the positive effects on the growth and development of premature infants and on the presentation of the couple's experience at the birth of a premature infant. Methods: A descriptive method of working with systematic review of the Slovene and English literature on growth and development of premature infants was used. The literature was found on the cooperative bibliographic system COBISS, the DiKul meta-search engine, the MEDLINE database, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, ProQuest, and PubMed. In the empirical part, the qualitative method was used to present a case of parents who had twice experienced a premature birth. Results: A couple who had a premature birth twice participated in the presentation of the case. Both parents appreciated that the health care team was so professional, that they were willing to explain the procedures and interventions they performed with the child, and that they always provided them with mental and physical support. They know the importance of supportive handling, kangarooing, breastfeeding, massages, the inclusion of older siblings, and the Octopus Project. Discussion and conclusion: A premature infant is not a scaled-down version of a baby. A preterm baby is more immature, needs more support and often more treatment. It is important that parents and healthcare staff work together to make parents feel accepted, supported and enabled to express their feelings and fears. It is recommended that mothers participate in feeding by pumping their own milk so that the baby can get her milk and with subsequent breastfeeding attempts. Caressing, massages, and supportive handling to learn proper movement patterns also suit the premature baby. We also encourage the involvement of older siblings. The Octopus Project has been launched in Slovenian maternity hospitals for the last 2 years. The main goal of the nursing team is to release the premature baby into his home environment as soon as possible, without affecting his growth and development.
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