Neonatal Intensive Care - Parent Involvement

Parent Involvement

Touch and Cuddles

We know that you might feel afraid to touch your baby. They look so small and fragile. However, they are stronger than they look. The staff will help guide you to touch and hold your baby. This may include simply holding their hand or foot gently, and comforting them with some containment holding (we call this an incubator cuddle), or having them out for cuddles, usually kangaroo care where your baby is nursed skin to skin either between mum's breasts or tucked inside daddy's shirt, laid on his chest. It sounds a bit strange but the babies love it and we suspect the parents might too!!

Doing "top'n'tails"

From very early days, even for the tiny babies, the staff will be encouraging you to wash your baby's face, freshen up their mouth and change their nappies. This can be scary but remember, your baby needs to have these things done and it's a good opportunity for you and your baby to get to know each other. Wouldn't you rather your baby have the loving hands of their mummy and daddy doing these very necessary things? It doesn't matter that you are just learning...remember...they are too! And when you have done that, the nurses might get you to help change the bedding and help you to settle your baby into a comfortable position. You can then make sure their eyes are shielded from bright lights and help them settle down with containment holding if they need it or leave them to go to sleep if they're settled.

Massage

In the NICU we do limited baby massage as your baby really wouldn't tolerate full massage yet. It would be too much stimulation for them but the massage we show you to do is very important, particularly for the very premature babies. Initially we massage only their hands, feet and face. The developmental care nurse will show you how to do this... just ask if you don't see her.

Infant "cues"

Cues are how we describe your baby's method of communicating with you… their own language and you will probably want to understand it. Babies born at term (mature) have obvious "cues". They look in your eyes, they cry, they stop crying when you do the right thing, they learn to smile at you quite quickly etc. Your premature baby doesn't behave like this... they can't... they're not supposed to... it's like expecting a 14 year old boy to behave like a 40 year old man... not very likely. The nurses are here to help you recognise your baby's cues, some are fairly obvious, others not so obvious, but they become clearer when you are shown and of course babies are all individual and will have their own cues which you will soon recognise.

Feeding

Whilst on the unit, your baby will be fed either by breast, cup, bottle, tube or intravenously
(via a drip).

Initially they may need to be fed by a thin tube going from their nose or mouth into their tummy, called a naso-gastric tube. Soon however you might be helping with their feeding. Perhaps you will just hold the syringe with the feed at first, but in time you will get more involved and perhaps if you wish, be taught how to do the feeds on your own. Remember, we don't expect you to do anything you're not comfortable with, but we really want you and your baby to have every opportunity to get to know each other and will do what we can to help.

There are leaflets available on the unit regarding feeding and your baby’s nurse will provide advice and support in your chosen method of feeding. The NICU actively encourages and supports mothers to express breast milk for their baby. Even if you do not intend to breast feed, providing your baby with breast milk in the early days of life will give her/him a very good start in life.