Caregiving motivations and developmentally prompted transition for mothers of prematurely born infants.

Parenting transition is a process prompted by infant developmental changes and may be defined by motivations for caregiving and the goals they indicate. Qualitative exploration of neonatal and 1-year feeding experience of 22 mothers of very-low-birth-weight infants revealed 3 types of caregiving-related motivations-nurturing, relating, and shaping quality of life. The clusters of motivations differed between ages and across mothers, suggesting transition in parenting reflective of both infant development and maternal goals. Study with a larger sample is needed to examine change in caregiving motivations and their function in characterizing parenting transitions.