When your precious baby has had a rough birth or health issues during delivery, the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) is where they're cared for. It's a special hospital department packed with high-end medical devices and gadgets, including medical experts, to ensure that your baby is especially monitored.
Because caring for sick babies differ from one hospital care to another, policies that affect NICU care also vary. You may experience some procedures and protocols that make you feel left out as you also want to care for your frail baby.
It's bad enough that you've planned well and prepared to come home with your first baby right after giving birth but landed at the NICU instead. It will never happen if you can't ensure that your baby will safely pass through this ordeal. You want to be with your baby from day one until recovery time.
You may feel at a loss because of your baby's situation, and it's helpful to know some things to expect while your baby is admitted to the NICU.
NICU Care, What To Expect
1. Extraordinary Baby CareBabies admitted to the NICU obviously need the highest medical care available to survive. All facilities and medical interventions are designed to provide extraordinary care to ensure the baby patient's recovery. It includes making sure that the baby formula used is safe and will guarantee the baby's health.
Some NICU managements require mothers to nurse their babies to ensure they get the best milk. But if you're unable to produce milk, make sure that you check the baby's milk formula your NICU is using. You can file a NEC lawsuit against a NICU that uses a formula that endangers your baby's tummy.
Each hospital's NICU is designed to be able to extend extraordinary care for every baby needing intensive medical care. They're therefore expected to ensure that every medical paraphernalia, down to the milk, will provide life-giving support. It's unforgivable if their milk formula causes discomfort to the baby. Horrifying if it causes necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
NEC is a life-threatening condition for premature babies affecting their intestines. While most affected babies survive, most of the survivors carry long-term sickness because of it. So, you must know every formula and every medication administered to your baby.
It's not about being doubtful about their expertise. It's to double-check each administration.
2. Prompt Access To SpecialistsThe NICU is one of the hospital's centers for medical specialists. Neonatal medical specialists and specialized nurses take particular care of their newborn patients. They're all aware that every laboratory test and result readings are urgent because the baby's survival and recovery depend on it.
You have the right to inform the hospital management and other authorities about the inaction or the unbecoming performance of each NICU staff. At the same time, you can voice your concern about how they take care of your baby. The legal community is also vigilant to advise you of some courses of action should you feel aggrieved in these situations.
3. Parent's Participation In Baby's RecoverySome hospitals will honor and are concerned about what the moms are going through in these cases. Still, some medical institutions are too tied up with their protocols to allow mothers to stay and watch over their babies. It's why concerned parents organizations have instituted a bill of rights for NICU babies' parents.
These bills of rights don't really have that Constitutional authority in law. But it serves as a guide for hospitals and parents alike to be able to work hand-in-hand for the baby under intensive care. It's for the parents to be able to actively participate in caring for their baby while confined in the NICU.
The NICU concerned will also be guided and obliged to render the highest standard of care to their baby patient. The presence of the parents is not a roadblock. It should be treated as a device of check and balance for the hospital, and its staff whose baby's life is relied upon.
As a parent of a NICU baby, you should also be reminded to respect the recommendations and procedural acts of the doctors for the best medical intervention available for your baby. You are there to extend support, not to hinder or obstruct your baby's medical needs.
