Feasibility of Capturing Parent-Infant Communication in Neonatal Intensive Care Units- A Scoping Review

This study is a scoping review that aims to explore the feasibility of capturing parent–infant communication in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) settings. Early parent–infant communication is fundamental to infant neurodevelopment, bonding, emotional regulation, feeding readiness, and later language outcomes, particularly for preterm and medically fragile infants. Despite its recognized importance, empirical efforts to observe, record, or measure parent–infant communication within NICUs remain methodologically challenging and inconsistently reported across the literature. The primary purpose of this scoping review is to systematically map existing research that has attempted to capture parent–infant communication in NICU contexts and to identify the methods used, feasibility considerations, and contextual factors influencing their implementation. Specifically, the review will examine how parent–infant communication has been operationalized and captured (e.g., through direct observation, audio or video recording, structured tools, or parent-report measures) and will synthesize reported feasibility-related issues, including ethical and consent considerations, technical and environmental constraints, practical implementation challenges, acceptability to parents and healthcare staff, and perceived burden. This review will include a broad range of evidence sources and study designs to comprehensively capture how feasibility has been addressed across different NICU settings, including public and private hospitals and across high-, middle-, and low-income countries. By adopting a scoping review methodology, this study does not aim to test hypotheses or evaluate intervention effectiveness, but rather to clarify concepts, map the breadth of existing evidence, and identify gaps in current research practices. The expected outcomes of this scoping review include: A comprehensive overview of methods used to capture parent–infant communication in NICU settings. Identification of common barriers and facilitators affecting feasibility. Synthesis of ethical, technical, and contextual challenges reported in the literature. Identification of gaps and under-researched areas to inform future research directions. Overall, the findings of this review are expected to provide an evidence-informed foundation to support the development of feasible, ethical, and contextually appropriate approaches for studying parent–infant communication in neonatal intensive care environments.