How you can help your premature babySurrounded by technology and highly efficient medical carers, you may feel helpless and inadequate, but there is a great deal that you and your partner can do to help your baby. The neonatal staff will encourage you to become involved with your baby’s care right from the start. Breastfeeding - Even if your baby is born prematurely, you should be able to breastfeed eventually. As soon as your baby is ready, he will be introduced to milk as a food. You will need to start by expressing your milk, perhaps by using a breast pump (the babyworld shop hires out Hospital Grade Medela breast pumps). Many hospitals also have breastmilk banks. If you have problems expressing your milk, ask for advice from a midwife, or a trained breastfeeding counsellor from the NCT or La Leche League. If possible, try to put your baby to the breast - even if he doesn’t feed; skin-to-skin contact will stimulate milk production and once breastfeeding is established, your supply should increase. Touch - The neonatal staff will also encourage you to talk to your baby and to have skin contact with him. In some hospitals mothers and fathers are encouraged to carry their naked baby inside their clothes, against their chest. This is called kangaroo care and has been shown to benefit the baby’s development. However, you will need to follow strict guidelines if you decide to do this. Read more about Positive touch for premmies here. Notebook - Many parents find that when they see the neonatalogist, they forget the questions they wanted to ask. You may find it helps to write them down as you think of them, perhaps in a notebook. The same notebook might be useful to keep a diary of your baby’s progress and how you are feeling. It can be reassuring to be able to read it as your baby develops, and look back on what your baby has come through. And if, tragically, your baby does not survive, it can be a poignant and concrete memory of his life, however brief. Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) - This observation plan has recently piloted with great success and aims to support parents while their baby is in the neonatal unit and during his first two months at home. The plan invloves asking parents to answer observational questions while their baby is in the unit and after they've gone home. The plan involves asking parents to see how their baby reacts to different situations and conditions that happen on a routine basis and the results of the pilot were extrememly positive. 1. 46 per cent pf parents noticed things about their baby they had not noticed before. 2. 57 per cent of parents felt they knew their baby better than before. 3. 62 per cent of parents said both their and their baby's emotional needs were met. 4. 57 per cent of parents felt their baby benefited from having the NBAS. 5. 100 per cent said they would recommend the NBAS to other parents. Eventually, despite the inevitable setbacks and disappointments, you should be able to start looking forward to your baby’s discharge. Today, babies go home when they are still quite tiny, providing they are developing normally. Visit babyworld's Prem Babies discussion forum – run by a mum with first-hand experience of this worrying time. |
