Exploring the Infant's Experience of the Infant-Clinician Relationship in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Phenomenological Study.

Infants engage with their world through a complex system of relationships, a reality that becomes especially salient in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where infants encounter numerous healthcare professionals. Secure connections between infants and caregivers are critical to psychological, emotional, and physical development, yet little research has examined how infants experience their relationships with healthcare professionals in NICU. This qualitative phenomenological study, conducted in an Australian NICU, explored the infant's experience of connection and relationship-building with their healthcare professionals. Term-born infants, their parents, and members of their healthcare teams were purposively sampled. Data were generated through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, providing rich insight into the infant's relational world. Thematic analysis identified three themes: (1) the complexity of infant-clinician relational dynamics; (2) the infant within the relational space; and (3) barriers and challenges within the infant-clinician relationship. Findings highlight the complexity and fragility of infant-clinician relationships, which were frequently centred on physical survival, sometimes limiting attention to the infant's emotional safety and early relational health. These results highlight the importance of recognising infants as relational beings and calls for neonatal practice to prioritise developmentally supportive and emotionally attuned caregiving.