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Pioneering scheme sees babies at risk of deadly infection get treatment beside mum straight after birth instead of being whisked to neonatal unit
Blush wedge, kurtgeiger.com during labour and that may lead to some babies suffering complications such as neonatal sepsis.
Nicolle said: “It was reassuring to have the baby at my bedside. Even though I was having treatment too, I could see him at all times, so knew he was fine.
“I think it’s great that this is happening and babies are staying with mum for their treatment.”
The new approach taken in the maternity unit of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow is thanks to innovative thinking by consultant Lesley Jackson, midwives Mary Hannaway and Claire Rowan and advanced nurse practitioner Rhona Wilson.
Mary, who has been a midwife for 20 years, said: “It seems very simple but we had to jump through hoops to bring it about.
“We had about 240 babies a year in this hospital who had to leave their mums and dads and go to the neonatal unit to have some antibiotics.
“They need to get them within an hour of delivery to be effective, so the babies were taken away from them very quickly to a different part of the hospital and could stay there for between two to four hours.
“Dr Jackson thought we could try a different approach to keep the baby with mum but we had to write a protocol and guidelines on how we could achieve that.”
Now, when a baby is identified as being at risk of sepsis, a neonatal doctor will put a cannula – a thin tube in a vein – in the baby for the antibiotics beside their mum and dad.
Mary said: “The partner can give the baby sucrose while they are getting the cannula in – and they like the idea of playing an active part. Some see it as a special time between baby and dad.
“The dad puts sucrose on the baby’s lips and they lap it up at the same time as we are putting the cannula in. It helps to comfort them.
“The next step will be to have mums breastfeed the babies while the antibiotics are given.
“Mums want skin-to-skin contact and you can’t get that time back if the baby is award. Mary said: “Since news of the nomination broke, we have had interest from colleagues all over Scotland as well as units in England who are really keen to learn more about what we are doing.”
The programme will soon be rolled out across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which will potentially help about 600 babies and their parents a year.