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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : November 28, 2018 4:50 PM IST
Breast milk fortifier is helpful for premature babies'. © Shutterstock
Care of premature babies in the NICU has come a long way from poor survival to survival with residual damage to intact survival. "The use of technology has added to the improved outcome of premature babies but in the process has diminished the human touch to the whole process. Research has proven this human touch is necessary and is now called as human neonatal care. Human Neonatal Care i.e. care of neonate with kindness given by human not machines. The babies provided with such care have faster weight gain, the easy establishment of breastfeeding, early discharge and advancement in social and psychological development," says Dr Abhijit Mhapankar, Consultant, Pediatrics and Neonatology, Motherhood Hospital, Kharghar. He briefs you about its importance.
Role of the mother in NICU
Hence the involvement of the mother in the NICU as early as possible is important. She is treated as one of the health care personnel attending the sick baby. In the yesteryears, mothers were not allowed to enter the NICU and their babies were shown to them through glass doors or narrow windows. This practice is changed and the involvement of mother form the very basis of human neonatal care.
The very existence of human life whether in health or sickness revolves around the five senses touch, smell, vision, hearing and taste. Preemies are no different. These preemies who are surrounded by ventilator tubing's, feeding tubes, iv cannulas, monitor probes, phototherapy goggles do need the arousal of these basic senses badly for their early recovery.
This can be achieved by these simple yet effective human interventions
Babies being touched by their mothers during the critical period in the form of Gentle caressing increases the oxygenation and helps in their recovery.
Mothers of premature babies are not able to breastfeed their babies. As they recover from their acute illness where they are on ventilator or oxygen, familiarization of baby with the odour of breast milk before the introduction of oral feeding by keeping wait of breastmilk near the sick baby stimulates the olfactory and gustatory systems of the babies. This helps in establishing early breastfeeding in such babies.
Non-Nutritive Sucking-The Baby is made to suckle the empty breast or little finger of the mother to elicit and maintain or motor activity.
The concept of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC)
Preterm and small babies need warmth, nutrition by way of mother's milk and hygiene for their safe and continuous adequate growth. However, going by conventional incubator care it takes a long time and baby continuous to stay in the nursery adding to maternal anxiety due to separation. It would also burden the existing neonatal care facility by way of bed occupancy. Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is care of preterm or low birth weight infants carried skin-to-skin with mother. This care is an effective way of ensuring the basic care of warmth, nutrition and hygiene to the baby. KMC was first suggested in 1978 by Dr Edgar Rey in Bogota, Columbia. It is derived from practical similarities to marsupial caregiving that is - the premature infant is kept warm in the maternal pouch and close to the breasts for adequate feeding. Experiments carried out in developing countries have shown that KMC is safe in terms of mortality and may reduce severe morbidity and avoid hospital admissions.
The major component of KMC are:
