Neonatal nurses at City Hospital are holding a week of celebrations and information about the care of their tiny patients at the start of May.
Launching a new care package – which takes much of its inspiration from the natural world and the parenting techniques of other mammals, Sister Ann Blaine explained: “We are keen to extend a technique which involves caring for babies in a way that supports their development. This ‘developmental care’ includes staff handling only when necessary, keeping babies in a warm, dark environment like the womb and ‘nesting’ them with soft boundaries in their incubators, so that the baby feel safe and calm.”
Parents are also encouraged to have as much ‘kangaroo care’, also called skin to skin, contact with their children as they can, and of course to breast feed and provide breast milk whenever possible. These techniques have been proven to produce much better short and long-term results for premature babies.
Special incubator covers have been made by local volunteers seamstress from the Church of the Latter Day Saints and Curdworth Women’s Church Guild to help reduce the amount of bright light pre-term babies are exposed to. This is just one of the new care initiatives being embraced by the Trust to improve the outcomes in neonates.
Details will be released to parents and staff alike through a number of events being held between Tuesday 7th May and Friday 10th May. On Thursday of that week, a lunch party supported by Asda at Capehill will also take place near the neo-natal unit at City, when parents and babies will be invited back to celebrate the success of their treatment and learn more about the new initiatives.
During the rest of the week nurses will be on hand to provide information about the latest techniques in neonatal care and will be running a quiz, as well as challenging staff to a Bake-Off at the end of the week. The theme of the week is animals and face painting and fancy dress will be welcomed.
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