Positive Impact Of The Kangaroo Care

Now, medical advances make it possible for even the most severe premature babies to survive. As in case of Preterm babies as young as 22 to 23 weeks ( Micro preemies), level 3 NICU offers a wide range of neonatal services including special imaging techniques, advanced ventilation procedures, and special surgeries (Bird, 2014). Advanced technology has helped to increase the survival rate for even the most severe preterm babies, but the costs associated with them is high (Kornhauser & Schneiderman, 2010). The average cost for treating the micro preemie has been estimated to be more than $ 2 million (Kornhauser & Schneiderman, 2010). Nevertheless, this projected cost is excluding the cost of treating long term outcomes in the micro preemies. The

Intravenous paracetamol has been successful in post-operative and mild to moderate pain management in neonates and infants. Harma et al evaluated the effectiveness of intravenous paracetamol for mild to moderate pain control in preterm infants. Intravenous paracetamol, a COX-2 enzyme inhibitor, was administered in standardized dosages to 108 infants with the first dose given prior to 72 hours of life. Controls did not receive paracetamol; however, both study groups received morphine for pain control when deemed necessary. Infants in the paracetamol group received significantly fewer morphine dosages than the control group (p = 0.044) without any signs of hepatic

Thank you for your thoughts on this week's topic. Kangaroo care as a routine nursing intervention in the stabilization of vital signs in preterm infants. Important safety concern to keep in mind when implementing this type of care is improving staff communication, according to a study done by Lippincott Nursing Center nurses are hesitant of providing this type of care because of safety concerns of whether the benefits outweigh the risks. This is especially true in infants that require mechanical ventilation or other supportive equipment. This apprehension can be related to the lack of communication between leaders and among staff. Educating staff about the important of skin-to-skin is important as well.

Painful procedures are common for premature infants and research has found that non-pharmacological methods are effective in reducing pain signs. Pain is subjective and difficult to measure unless vocalized, as infants are unable to verbalize their pain, their management in regards to pain relief is suboptimal (who.int). It has been documented in many studies that premature babies of a gestation of less than 32 weeks are subjected to approximately between 10 and 15 painful procedures in their first few weeks of life and more than 80% of those procedures are performed without pain relief (Stevens et al, 2003).

Newborn infants are routinely exposed to painful procedures, for example, injection, heel lancing, arterial stab, or circumcision (Heaton, Herd, & Fernando, 2007). Frequent pain is harmful to the neonates in the phase of physiological development (Thompson, 2005). In particular, infants are at high risks when responding to immediate pain, resulting in increased heart and respiratory rates, increased blood pressure, decreased oxygen saturation, and a release of adrenal stress hormones. In addition, since premature

As healthcare professionals, the goal is to relieve pain and suffering with little to no harm done1,2. While children suffer similarly from pain as adults do, there are different factors to take into account. Children might suffer from a heightened sense of fear and anxiety as compared to adults3 and as such, the age old concept of forced restraint is no longer acceptable and may even compound the child’s fear in hospitals and needles throughout life1,4. While distraction techniques, play therapy and mild analgesia might be sufficient in producing a cooperative and relaxed child4,5, for severe pain, this is not an option and general anaesthesia or sedation is often used instead1,6,7. Furthermore, given how the ‘gold standard’

Lighting and acoustical quality are of particular importance, as are basic design principles such as layout and location and family and visitor comfort. Above all else, the way NICUs are laid out affects the health of the infants who are in the unit. The infants are often some of the most vulnerable patients in the hospital. Design strategies for NICUs need to address emotional, physical, developmental, medical and social needs of infants, families and hospital

In summary, we presented in this section the current efforts for assessing infants’ pain using vital signs. Although studies found a correlation between changes in vital signs and pain, vital signs changes are considered less pain specific because they are sensitive and can be associated with other no-pain emotions or underlying illness \cite{bellieni2012pain}. Therefore, it has been suggested \cite{bellieni2012pain,arbour2010vital} to use vital signs in conjunction with behavioral indicators, which are considered more pain specific, for pain

The Comfort theory is a middle range theory in which Katharine Kolcaba refers to nursing as the assessment of a patient’s comfort level, the interventions to assist in achieving comfort, and the re-evaluation of the patient post-interventions (Silva & Ponte, 2014). The goal for us as nurses is for our patient to be comfortable and have an acceptable pain level. Pain is no less an issue in the neonate. Many believe that neonates do not feel pain the way adults and older children do. When a neonate is in pain it disrupts their comfort level, and they are not able to rest and grow.

The nurse must be mindful of each intervention initiated and the possible benefits of the intervention against its potential harmful effects for both mother and fetus. Not providing basic comfort measures for the mother can cause serious physical and emotional problems and could lead to possible fatigue and feelings of failure from the mother. The priority of this nursing intervention is to provide the mother and fetus with the least discomfort as possible and

During delivery the fetus undergoes both intense physical and emotional stresses. Throughout the birthing process, the fetus’s muscles and connective tissues, especially within the head and neck, can become restricted and cramped, which in turn causes physical tension on the fetus (Kaplan, 2010). During birth, the fetus can develop structural changes that can either be harmful or benign. The probability of this sort of complication increases during prolonged labors, especially with the use of Pitocin, the use of forceps, or when vacuum extractions are used. During the vaginal delivery process, the fetus’s head is passed through a much smaller passageway then the size of the head, so in response, the bones in the skull will overlap to try and compensate and decrease the size of the fetus’s head to be able to fit, and sometimes this change is not reversed on it’s own after delivery. Also, the fetus’s head is bent backwards while traveling through the birth canal. This puts significant pressure on three nerves: the vagal nerve, the hypoglossal nerve, and the glossopharyngeal nerve, which may lead to issues involving the sucking reflex and ineffective latch during feedings (Sorrel, 2014). Osteopathic manipulation medicine may be helpful in resolving problems associated with the birthing process that the newborn may

Analgesia is offered to laboring women so they are able to have pain relief from the contractions and delivery of the infant. This often sounds appealing to women after they have endured hours of fighting through their contractions or they fear for the pain that comes with delivering a baby vaginally. The great controversy with analgesia is if administering pain medication in laboring women causes prolonged labor time compared to cases with no analgesia implementation? So the question at initiated the research was, does administering analgesia in pregnant women cause prolonged labor time compared to cases with no analgesia implementation? According to Laughon et al., (2014), a prolonged labor time can cause an infant to have an APGAR score less than seven, a higher chance of a NICU admission, birth depression, and minor trauma. It is also said that analgesia use possesses a higher risk for cesarean section, which can have a negative impact on the mother.

For the trial, the team obtained informed consent from women whom seemed to be heading towards a delivery before the 29 week gestational mark and the fetuses were randomly selected to be in either the control or the intervention group prior to delivery. Hospital resuscitation protocol was followed on all infants regardless of which group they were in, as well as being covered in blankets to be transferred to the NICU after being stabilized. The team attempted to control external factors that might alter the data, like the temperature of the delivery room, by implementing measures to create a controlled ambient for the deliveries, setting the thermostat of the delivery rooms to 26 degrees Celsius. This variant was therefore taken into account in the data analysis and the ambient temperature was recorded at the time of birth for the infant, as well as admission time to the NICU and temperature. Upon admission to the NICU all protocol was followed in the same manner for both groups and cranial ultrasounds done, number of days on oxygen supplementation, major brain injuries and date of hospital discharge and mortality dates were recorded. The statistical analysis of the data was done using the

Given the difficulty in finding the “Holy Grail” of behavioural pain scales for neonates, investigators have begun to look for objective physiologic tools. These pursuits have included regional oxygen saturation in the brain (as in near- infrared spectroscopy), EEG, heart rate variability, skin conductance and neurohumoral responses. Although each appears to be an objective metric that may reflect the neonate’s response to a painful stimulus, some of the metrics under investigation are invasive, others reflect a time course that may not correspond to the level of stimulation, and others remain imprecise. (201)

Shaffer and Kipp (2014) explained the importance of parent-infant attachment and the long-term emotional and cognitive benefits for children that have developed secure attachments. Based on the idea of attachment we will look at the effectiveness of Kangaroo Care in the neonatal care unit. Kangaroo care is when the newborn is placed skin-to-skin on mom or dad’s bare chest. In one study kangaroo care was provided in thirty minute sessions, three times a week for ten weeks. The results showed that infants had a lower respiration rate, increased attachment and reduced stress for both parent and infant (Cho et al., 2017). The organization Hand to Hand goes as far to say that “even in the stressful environment of the NICU, parent and child can quietly bond and get to know one