For the Love of Babies Reflection
The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is not a place many parents want to experience with their child or loved ones. The neonatal intensive care unit is full of many different conditions; ranging from severely premature to severely hypoglycemic to needing a transplant. These conditions can be just as severe if not worse than those seen in adults or the elderly. So you may wonder, how can a body so new and fragile have the potential to thrive and survive with all these problems when even the adult body struggles with it? Well, the answer is not that clear cut. With a lot of hope, prayers, and miracle work from doctors and nurses these babies at times are able to survive but some do have setbacks. Many conditions
…show more content…
In “For the Love of Babies”, Doctor Sue Hall does an extremely good job showing the positives and negatives of life in the neonatal intensive care unit. Doctor Sue Hall discusses many different conditions and elaborates on how the babies are effected by them, while also including us in the behind the scene views of her thoughts when trying to treat and care for these helpless babies. Dr. Sue Hall also shares viewpoints from different parents who have children in the neonatal intensive care unit. Doctor Sue Hall in a way gives us a small glimpse of how and what a baby, a parent, and what being a member of the neonatal intensive care unit staff entails. By including us in her work as a neonatal intensive care unit doctor, Doctor Sue Hall opened my eyes to the uncertainty and complexity these complications carry. Being a doctor in the neonatal intensive care unit means planning their care around choices of the parents, not necessarily what’s best for the infant. With that being said, any procedure or operation done on the infant at this point in life can have major effects on the infants life in the future. It is crucial that the neonatologist let parents weigh their options, not only deciding what is best for the
This situation has made me grateful to be alive since I was able to be brought back to health due to these wonderful neonatal nurses who helped me recover, but not many newborn babies are fortunate enough to survive just like me as newborn babies have died and suffered due to the lack of supervision that neonatal nurses are incapable of providing.
There are more than 70% of premature babies that are born between 34 and 36 weeks gestation a year. When a baby is born early, or born with birth defects, the Neonatal Intensive Care unit is its first home. The nurse’s in the NICU have the difficult job of preparing baby’s and parents for a health life together. A baby who has been put into the NICU will stay there until it is healthy enough to go home.
A baby was just born at 26 weeks gestation. Just over half the normal 40 weeks a baby should stay inside the mother. The baby is immediately whisked away and taken to be evaluated and prepared for a long journey ahead. Ever since I could remember babies and the nursery at the hospital have fascinated me. Whenever we would go visit a friend who had a baby, I would find myself peaking over the windows into the nursery. I have known for a while that working in the neonatal intensive care unit is what I want to pursue. Recently I have been looking into nurse practitioners and furthering my education beyond my BSN. Being able to care for these infants in the most critical stages of their life, and being able to provide them the support they need to survive outside the womb seems so satisfying . Neonatal nurse practitioners have years of education, deep history, detailed job description, high demands and some legal issues.
Defining premature birth is much more than just a denotative phrase. It is not just a preterm birth, or a baby born early. It is a life-changing event, and something that affects millions of people worldwide. The intense quiet room with heart monitors beeping, as parents see their baby and are devastated. Loved ones can not feed them or kiss them nor, can they not hold them or hug them. They do not get the same experience as others. Little miracles lay inside these cubes where multiple wires are help keeping them alive. A place where prayers happen, and where all hope for the best. Nobody knows the true pain and struggle behind a preterm birth and it needs to be discussed. Prematurity is a serious conflict; therefore, it needs more awareness as many families are facing this tough situation.
The demand for this level of neonatal nursing is decreasing because mothers and newborn babies are now more likely to stay in the same room together after birth. Level II nurses are much more in demand because premature and sick babies need constant attention. Level III nurses have the most intensive responsibilities, working in the NICU and monitoring seriously ill or premature infants around the clock. They check ventilators and incubators, make sure babies are responding well, and teach parents how to care for their infants properly.” Many Neonatal nurse work in the NICU. They give medical care to the babies that are at risk newborns. Neonatal nurse tend to care for 1-4 babies at a
Premature babies typically have underdeveloped respiratory systems and problems maintaining body heat, so they may be kept on a respirator or in an incubator. Although the neonatal period is the first month after birth, these nurses often care for children up to age 2 who have long-term medical issues. While their primary focus is the health of the babies, neonatal nurses obviously will spend a lot of time with anxious parents who are visiting their children in the NICU and must be able to calmly and clearly explain the babies illnesses and treatment, as well as involve the parents in their
NICU Nurses are responsible for care of infants who may be diagnosed with diseases, delivery complications and, the one we see most, prematurity. They develop nursing care plans and assess, plan, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of treatments in these plans. On
Caring for my patient is a key to having a successful business. As a Neonatal Nurse I will respect the mother and her new born. I will show my staff how much I care by working as a team to accomplishing our goals. When I encourage and motivate the mother who may face difficulties, I will keep her baby comfortable while going through medication withdrawals. By creatively performing my job to the best of my ability and completing tasks in a timely matter, will help tremendously.
According to the article “Death and Dying”, neonatology is a specialty with pediatric medicine to provide care for sick or premature babies.
For the study, academic pediatric centres were required to have full-time training programs in pediatrics and pediatric surgery as well as a level 3 neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) while a community hospital must have had a neonatal ICU or special care nursery, no full-time pediatric or surgical training and 1000+ pediatric admissions between April 2008 and March 2009. All participating patients were under 19 years of age with a hospital stay over 24
Neonatal nursing is a specialty of nursing that works with newborn infants born with a variety of problems such as prematurity, birth defects, acid reflux, body malfunctions, and surgical problems. The requirements of becoming a neonatal nurse is having good communication with doctors, specialties, family members, administrators, etc. Some qualities are being fast analytical thinkers to make good choices, well-developed stress management skills, be flexible with different changes, and lastly pay attention to detail documentation. It’s a challenging job to treat patients with problems because you’re dealing with their health and family members. However, it’s a rewarding job because it plays a huge role in saving lives in babies and giving good news to the family.
Being a mommy to a baby who spent time in the NICU is something no one ever wants to be, its unexpected, scary and probably one of the darkest moments in your life. We learn quickly that it's actually an honor to be a NICU Mom, because we experience miracles every single day and even in those darkest times, we find irreplaceable
Thanks to Jenny Jaeckel having the courage to tell a very personal part of her family's life I have a new favorite graphic novel, SPOT 12. It’s an exceptional chronicle of what it is like to deal with having a baby in the NICU. Therefore, as a reader, you get a special glance into a minute habitat that most of us never see. You will be standing vigil with Jenny and Cito over their baby Asa in constant diligence regarding her well-being and medical care. The physical and mental exhaustion that the parents endure is overwhelming while in the NICU yet family, friends along with other families that have babies in the NICU are supportive and helpful. Do not let the sadness of this frighten you away because there are many heartfelt and uplifting
This transfer process of ill newborn babies to the NICU may occur multiple times during a work shift. Even though the nurse has emotional responses to these transfer processes, the nurse must continue to maintain nursing professionals. Parents of sick babies are highly
Nurses working within the neonatal unit require a particular set of skills to adequately fulfil their roles and responsibilities within this fragile setting. The role of a neonatal nurse is to provide intensive nursing care to an infant who has inherited complications at birth due to varied reasons (Tubs-Colley, Pickler, Younger, & Mark, 2015). These complications often manifest as undeveloped internal organs that make simple bodily functions such as breathing and regulating body temperature incredibly difficult. The neonatal nurse provides close monitoring and extremely individualized care per patient to stabilise and further develop these body systems artificially post-uterine (Drozdowicz & Dillard, 2014).