Work package A.1.1. Structured qualitative interviews
VLBW
At least 12 interviews are planned with mothers of VLBW infants under 1,500 grams in the 3–12 months after hospital discharge of the children. This time period was chosen in trade-off between retraumatisation risk and recall reliability. Mothers who gave birth to multiples of which not all infants survived are excluded. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, interviews will be conducted remotely. As the target group being German mothers of VLBW infants, the interview language will be German. Answers will be captured using an offline dictation machine. To reduce the risk of data loss due to malfunctioning equipment, a transcript writer will be present if the mothers provide consent. Interviews will be done in a semi-structured manner to provide the option to ask further questions and/or comfort the mothers if they show signs of psychological stress, and will be conducted by a psychologist to further mitigate retraumatisation risk.Based on the results of a literature research the interview guide will cover the following topics:Breastfeeding intention.Current breastfeeding and pumping behaviour.Breastfeeding and pumping attitudes and related norms.Stay at NICU (e.g. framework data, breastfeeding and pumping behaviour during the stay).Lactation and breastfeeding support (e.g. by hospital/NICU staff, partner etc.).Psychological stress factors.Gender role orientation.Previous breastfeeding and pumping experience and behaviourBreastfeeding app opinions and preferences.Demographic questions (e.g. age, vocational status, religion etc.).Questions will be developed by experts and based on the topics of the literature review, and will be discussed and revised within a multidisciplinary team including psychologists, social scientist, medical experts (especially with expertise in NICU), nursing staff, as well as behavioural economists. Once the interviews are conducted, the resulting audio files will be transcribed and anonymised by a transcription office and will be coded by two trained research assistants according to a coding scheme. Interview data will be analysed qualitatively and, where possible, data will be coded in a way to also enable quantitative analyses.