Baby friendly NICU?

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Feb 10, 2011

We are as baby friendly as we are able. If we have a kid for obs and the mom wants to BF and we are able to feed the kid, we call and see if mom can come over first before we feed.

With the preemies, it is sometimes hard...moms aren't there 24/7 so we do have to supplement with bottles in order to get the kids home. We hold off on bottles as long as we are able to help establish BFing. I have found that most moms just want to get their kiddies home and don't mind the supplementing or bottles.

SummerC · Feb 11, 2011

I agree with the post above. We are going 'baby friendly' which during the process, is hard. Of course with any change, you will find resistance.

We can wait up to 48 hours to feed a baby until we have milk, which is hard to do for a screaming full term baby.

On the plus note, we have donor breastmilk which surprisingly, a lot of families are open to. It is only temporary if a mom wants it used until her supply increases. And those babies who can't have mom's milk (i.e. substance abusing), the baby can have breastmilk right from the start, which is very beneficial for babies who need the immunity boost.

We also have to pay for formula now, which has significantly reduced the amount and types of ready to feed formula we stock.

Also, we have an order for oral colostrum care for infants who are NPO, less than

Lastly, kangaroo care is encouraged to be done once a day, if possible (most of the time not depending on baby's instability or mom/dad's schedule).

These are the big initiatives that we have been implementing. I am sure there are more.

Hope this helps.

rockabye · Feb 11, 2011

Could someone define what "baby-friendly" means? I am not familiar with that term in the NICU.

Bortaz, MSN, RN · Feb 12, 2011

I was going to ask what it means, as well. Never heard the term related to the NICU.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Feb 12, 2011

Most hospitals use it for normal newborn, but some are trying to institute it into NICU's by having private rooms with sleep chairs, refridge, etc, allowing parents to care for their baby 24 hours if it is possible, no bottles only breast, things like that.

Hard to carry out in most NICU's. We don't even have anywhere for our moms to stay unless they can board on the postpartum floor, which is rare as they are always busy.

umcRN, BSN, RN · Feb 12, 2011

I guess in that case our NICU would about as "baby friendly" as you can get a level IIIc unit.

Private rooms with chair for 1 parent to stay overnight (the other parent may sleep in a similar chair in our in unit parent quiet room). There are no bathrooms in the room for parents though, bathrooms are on unit and as a children's hospital we do have a large parent area with showers for all the parents in hospital.

Refridgerators in each room - for breastmilk/formula only, not for parents food/drinks

Specialized lighting that is supposedly better for babies eyes

A completely decentralized unit so there are no "crowds" anywhere thus cutting down on noise levels.

No cell phones or TV usage by parents

I guess the only place we would be "non" baby friendly is breastfeeding, we encourage all moms to pump and we have a lactation room and moms can also bring the pump to their baby's room and pump there but as most of our patients are NPO on admission and many have diagnosis that would make early exclusive breastfeeding difficult or impossible, many of our babies are NG fed or bottle fed to monitor amounts etc when they start feeding. We do have a lactation consultant available though for those mothers who want to transition to breast when the baby is ready.

msgirl68 · Sep 21, 2011

What about a nurse friendly NICU? The longer the parents camp out, the more infections the babies get.

Austin04 · Sep 28, 2011

We are a level 3 unit that has all private rooms and we refer to ourselves as "family centered care". We (knock on wood) have had very little infections (last documented was 2009) and pride ourselves in including the families in their babies care.

agiboma, BSN, MSN, NP · Oct 11, 2011

My son was in a baby friendly NICU he's a 25 weeker and it was great because he had his own private room, which had a fridge from my EBM, also a shower in the washroom and a very comfy couch in his room so i could sleep over whenever i liked. It was great cause i got to spend more time with him and do most of his care

AnonRNC · Oct 16, 2011

Coming in a bit late, but I want to point out that "baby friendly" means something very specific. The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative http://www.babyfriendlyusa.org/eng/index.html is a joint project between WHO and UNICEF to promote baby and breast friendly practices in hospitals that deliver babies.

Most Baby Friendly practices specify "for the healthy full term infant," and are therefore not applicable in the NICU.

My facility is WHO designated Baby Friendly, and our NICU is probably much like everyone else's. We do provide breast pumps to use while with the baby and we have NICU-specific IBCLCs available on days.