Carrying: parental experience of the hospital transfer of their baby.

Some hospital practices that are routine for hospital staff may carry unintended significance for patients and their families. The transfer of neonatal infants between hospitals and hospital environments is one such practice that may be covered by perfectly acceptable rules and regulations but that, at times, gives rise to unsuspected anxieties, pain, and worries in the parent. In this phenomenological study, I explored meaning aspects of the phenomenon transfer to reveal a lived experience of carrying--a carrying across from here to there; a carrying between changing places; a carrying contact of parent-child in-touchness that is enabled or compromised in this experience; a carrying with care; and a carrying as a search for place as home. The concluding recommendations speak to the need for understanding the experiences of hospitalized babies' parents, and speak to the tactful sensitivities required of the health care team during the transfer of child and family.