Welcome to the NICU. You may never have imagined having a baby in the NICU or even known there was such a place. Learning about the NICU can help you adjust more comfortably and confidently.
What is the NICU?
- NICU is short for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
- It is a specialized unit in the hospital that provides around the clock care for all babies that are born needing extra medical attention.
Why is my baby in the NICU?
Having a baby in the NICU is more common than you may think. Around 15% of babies born in the US go to the NICU. All babies have to adjust to living outside the womb. Before birth, your baby depended on its birth parent’s body to function. When your baby left the womb their body systems had to change:
- Their lungs now have to breathe air.
- Their heart and lung blood circulation must change to work on its own.
- Their digestive system (GI system) must begin to process food and have bowel movements.
- Their kidneys must begin working to balance fluids and chemicals in the body and make and get rid of urine.
- Their liver and immune systems must begin working on their own to protect their body.
Your baby’s body systems must work together in a new way and prematurity, a difficult birth, physical or genetic issues and even a slow response to life can make this change more difficult. Your baby requires extra special care to help them adjust to living outside the womb. NICUs are here to help.
Will my baby always be in the same unit of the hospital?
- There are different units within the NICU based on the level of care that your baby requires.
- Your baby may move from a higher level of care (Level 4) to a lower level of care (Level 1) and back again as needed. There is an isolation room for babies who have an infection or need to be kept apart from other babies.
When can I be with my baby in the NICU?
- Visitation hours vary at each hospital. Ask your baby’s nurse for the current visitation schedule.
- The NICU is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your baby will have a nurse at their bedside during the day (7am-7pm) and a different one at night (7pm-7am). The nurses change every day.
- Your baby’s schedule is divided by Touch Times. Touch Times are specific times spread out through the day when the healthcare team clusters all medical interventions, feeding, diapering and time spent with hands-on care of your baby. This allows your baby to rest, undisturbed as much as possible. Ask your baby’s nurse when your baby’s touch times are. This is a great time for you to participate in your baby’s care.
- The medical team will do something called rounds where the neonatologist will visit your baby every day to discuss your baby’s plan of care. Ask when the team will visit your baby and be at your baby’s bedside at that time or call in to be part of the conversation if you cannot be there.
Who might I see in the NICU?
There are a lot of different people working together to care for your baby. There may be new nurses and doctors caring for your baby during each shift. Some of those people are:
- doctors, nurses, medical specialists, therapists, social workers, security, housekeeping/environmental staff,
- babies born at 37 weeks or less. Babies born critically ill or those needing extra medical support.
- mothers, fathers, grandparents, foster parents, adoptive parents.
- NICU support groups, like ICU baby.
What is my role?
You are your baby’s mother, father, or caregiver. You are their parent caregiver on the healthcare team. You are integral to your baby’s care.
- Communicate with the medical team. You are your baby’s voice.
- Care for your baby. Your baby needs you.
- Visit.
- Participate in touch times.
- Do Kangaroo Skin-to-Skin Care.
- If you are planning to feed your baby breastmilk, pump every 3 hours to keep your supply up.
- Care for yourself. Be kind to yourself. This experience may feel entirely new. It takes time to adjust.
- Sleep.
- Eat.
- Accept help from colleagues, friends or family members.
- Pumping breast milk may not be easy. Whatever you can do is enough.
- Talk to a mental health professional if you are feeling anxious or depressed. Postpartum anxiety and depression is very common in the NICU for mothers and fathers. Help is available so you can feel better. Talk to a trusted member of your healthcare team.
- Protect your baby’s health.
- NICU babies are too little for our big germs.
- Wash your hands.
- Wear fresh clothes.
- Shower before coming for skin-to-skin care.
- Stay home if you do not feel well and get help from your doctors, friends and family who can help you.
- Try to manage your expectations.
- Your baby is an individual. They will stay in the NICU as long as they need to be there.
- The NICU journey can be unpredictable. Some parents say that the different phases of the NICU feel like a dance, taking two steps forward and one step back and some say it is like a roller coaster.
- Set-backs can happen at any point in the NICU journey. Your baby may need more time or support to adjust to life outside the womb, be stable and meet all of the milestones and develop all the skills they need to go home.
- Celebrate every victory.