Table 2.

Major themes, minor themes, and supporting quotes.

Major theme	Minor theme	Exemplary Quote
High satisfaction with the postpartum experience	Increased time with infant	I don’t have to split time between my wife in Labor and Delivery and my baby in the NICU.
	Improved transition to parenthood of a NICU baby	Most moms don’t plan on having a NICU baby, so this helps moms’ transition better when baby is in the room with her. I have seen a huge shift in mom after delivery when mom is able to stay with her baby.
I-NIC rooms increased family comfort and involvement in care	Physical space creates a positive experience	Coming from a mom who had a baby in the old NICU, I had to sleep on a tiny couch in the corner right after my c-section. This [I-NIC] really lets the moms be with their baby and be comfortable. I think it’s great. We’re more able to stay with her [baby] until she is ready to go home since this is our room and we don’t have to share
	Opportunities to bond with baby	It’s [I-NIC] more comfortable…you don’t have to share those first moments with other parents Before [I-NIC], skin to skin was initiated later, breastfeeding didn’t start as soon, and there was less bonding…now sicker kids do skin to skin
The I-NIC model increased intradisciplinary communication	Nurses work as a team	All the nurses [NICU and L&D] work mother baby so that both have some experience with both mom and baby and can jump into an emergency on either end
	Availability of consulting providers	Neonatology is able to consult ahead of time on more moms, so Mom isn’t left to wonder what is happening with her baby There is better anticipatory guidance to moms OB knows more about what is going on with the NICU baby, which allows for better collaboration between both teams
Providing intensive care in a non-ICU setting was challenging for clinicians	Decreased space during emergencies	If there are two emergencies at the same time, it is unsafe…safety was a challenge in the beginning, and it did not feel safe originally When there is an emergency there is not enough space
	Decreased visibility of critically ill infants	[I-NIC was a] huge adjustment because there’s no windows and monitors aren’t visualized easily…it’s very scary as a NICU nurse if you can’t monitor your patient Sicker kids need consistent monitoring and it’s not safe to have them in the same room as mom…this is not an ICU set up specifically and the same safety conditions are not in place
	Physical space limitations cause bed management issues	[I-NIC] can be a problem if we have several [NICU] babies and we are then out of labor rooms since the babies are occupying them. The biggest challenge is space. If a baby is staying for multiple months, then the labor room isn’t available for use.
NICU parents felt a decreased sense of community		In the traditional NICU parents can easily bond with other parents and feel a sense of community
		Here [I-NIC], parents might be surrounded by a well-baby, which can feel isolating