Hands-on care from parents helps premature babies thrive
With our integrated family care programme, premature babies can be sent home around 2-3 weeks earlier
Dr Jay Banerjee
A PIONEERING initiative that encourages parents to t a ke a h a n d s - o n approach to caring for their premature baby has been found to help them to develop more quickly and spend less time in hospital.
Babies on the scheme learn to “suck feed”, either from the breast or a bottle, sooner and can be discharged home about a fortnight earlier than might otherwise be the case.
About 200 sets of parents have been involved in the project launched by Imperial College NHS Trust at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea, and St Mary’s hospitals two years ago.
Parents are taught how to feed their baby, using syringes and tubes for the youngest, and to change nappies. They learn about the child’s vital monitoring signs, such as blood oxygen saturation levels, and are included in the consultant’s morning ward round discussing their baby’s care and progress.
One mother, Ashley Ruddy, fought back tears when asked about the care that her baby Michael, born at 24 weeks, had received at Queen Charlotte’s. “It s ave d my s o n’s l i f e ,” s h e told the Evening Standard.
Mrs Ruddy, 32, who runs a sales consultancy and lives with husband Patrick in north Kensington, said: “From day one you feel really part of his journey. From the moment you arrive on the unit you are called ‘ Mummy’. It seems like a small thing but it’s massive.
“Now that we are out of the fog, or fragility, we can look back and say, ‘That was amazing that we were able to be so involved’.”
The system, called “integrated family care”, has become a standard part of the care at Imperial, which looks after the most at-risk babies.
It is also being rolled out to Chelsea and Westminster, Northwick Park, West Middlesex and Hillingdon hospitals.
The scheme is run by consultant neonatologists Dr Jay Banerjee and Dr Aniko Deierl. Parents have reported “huge” satisfaction rates.
Dr Banerjee said: “Babies born at 28-32 weeks will go home at around 38 weeks. By implementing our programme, we can send these babies home at around 35-36 weeks.”
It costs £550 a day for specialist care on the unit and about £1,500 a day for a neonatal intensive-care cot. “If you are discharging babies earlier, you free up a lot of beds,” Dr Banerjee added.
Dr Deierl said there had been a “culture of change” to encourage nurses to train parents rather than carrying out all interventions themselves: “Even with the tiniest baby, they can learn how to change a nappy. They feel they’re not just visitors to a sick baby.”