Birth under emergency conditions, premature birth, illness, or disability of the newborn: Such events are a significant burden for mothers and fathers. The anticipated joy of childbirth often fades when the child must be cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit for weeks or even months. Instead, parents experience feelings of helplessness, guilt, or aggression. In these crisis situations, compassionate support from the neonatal care and treatment team is essential. The author presents an intervention concept for family-oriented, psychosocial parental counseling in neonatology and demonstrates how to convey medical information and care measures in an understandable way, how to promote the parent-child bond through individual care steps, and how to collaborate within the neonatal team for parental counseling. Content: Relationship care: Nursing.