The Strangest Feeling
Nobody is being unkind. The nurses are busy. The doctors are focused. Everyone is trying to save your baby’s life. But you feel like a visitor. And that is a strange feeling…
For decades babies were taken to the NICU and parents were left behind. The mother recovered on a postnatal ward, sometimes for days, before she was allowed to see her child.
In the FICare units, parents commit to spending at least six hours per day, five days per week, at their baby’s bedside. They are trained to do things that nurses usually do: bathing, feeding, changing nappies, giving medication, taking temperature. They are encouraged to attend ward rounds and to take part in clinical decisions. Babies with FICare approach gain more weight, breastfeeding rates are higher and the parents, especially the mothers, have lower levels of stress and anxiety.
Family Integrated Care is a set of practical actions. If a mother wants to reach in to touch her baby, the incubator must allow it without losing heat, without creating a draught, without alarms sounding because a door was opened or the temperature drops. If a father wants to help with a nappy change, the incubator must give him access that is safe for the baby and easy for him.
Some countries have understood this for a long time. Many larger hospitals have family sleeping rooms next to the NICU with areas for food, for drinks, for siblings to play. Countries where this happens have the lowest neonatal mortality rates in the world. They decided that parents belong in the NICU, and they built the facilities and the routines to make that possible.
The doctors who care for an ELBW baby say that family involvement from day one is critical to his/her outcome. Parents can talk to their baby, hold a finger for him to grasp. They are part of the team and babies are handled as little as possible.
As a nurse you know that when parents understand what is happening, they are less anxious and more helpful. You know that breastfeeding works better when the mother is close to her baby.
ut you also know that the equipment can make things difficult, like with incubators that are hard to open, alarms that cannot be silenced or doors that can slam noisily. When the incubator works with the family then familycentred care becomes possible.
ATOM MEDICAL has always believed, as a clinical principle, that the baby belongs to the parents while hosted into the hospital.
