Parental Holding Practices in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units in the US

Despite the known benefits of parental holding, wide variability in NICU holding practices exists. Importantly, no medical intervention in this study was unanimously associated with restricting parental holding, suggesting that safe and feasible approaches to holding exist across clinical contexts. This highlights the critical need to document and disseminate these practices to inform and advance standards of care. The development of national standardized holding guidelines is a viable pathway forward to eliminate variability in individual perceived safety barriers and provide a pathway to improving family-centered care in the NICU.