Babies In Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Research Articles

Reduction of Environmental Noise Impact on Preterm Babies in NICU by Using Ear Plugs

Objective − To determine if using ear plugs reduce the impact of noise on preterm babies admitted to neonatal intensive care units in terms of changes in their vital parameters and their discomfort level, assessed using the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS) score.Materials and Methods − This is an interventional study conducted in a tertiary level neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) (Bangalore, India) over a period of 3 months, ranging from June 2022 to September 2022. This study included 20 preterm babies with different gestational ages and birth weights who were admitted to the NICU during that period. The babies’ response to noise, in terms of changes in heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and discomfort level, were assessed with ear plugs and without ear plugs on alternate days and the results were recorded. Descriptive statistics were used for statistical analysis. Results − On days 1 and 3, mean heart rate and systolic blood pressure were lower in babies wearing ear plugs (141.55±2.42 SD and 60.1±11.58, respectively) than in the same babies without ear plugs (157.55±2.52 SD and 61.85±1.6 SD, respectively) on days 2 and 4. The mean oxygen saturation was higher in babies wearing ear plugs (96.7%±0.80 SD) than in the same babies without the intervention (93.75%±1.29 SD). The mean NIPS score was lower with the intervention (2.05±0.22) than without ear plugs (5.05±0.22 SD).Conclusion – Ear plugs were an effective alternative in situations where noise in the NICU cannot be consistently maintained at a lower level than the standard recommendation by the AAP of 45 decibels.

Parent Perspectives: Part 2-Considerations for the Transition Home Post-NICU Discharge.

This paper is part two of a series of papers written by the mothers of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) graduates. The companion paper, "Parent Perspectives: Part 1-Considerations for Changing the NICU Culture", considers all aspects of the NICU experience and provides recommendations for interventions and improvements from a life-course perspective while families are in the NICU. In part two, the focus is the transition home post-NICU stay. The time after NICU discharge is a critical and sensitive developmental period for NICU babies and their families, and an important life course transition. This paper provides a parent's perspective of how to improve the transition home post-NICU stay. Our perspectives draw on the Life Course Health Development approach, which regards health as an active process that is developed over time based on a person's internal biologic and physiologic systems, their external environment and circumstances, and the interactions or relationships between them. This paper describes a collaborative care model where parents and their healthcare teams work together to develop shared care plans. It also describes how we can build trust and family capacity to support long-term care, ensure family well-being, and link families to needed resources and support that can ease the transition from the NICU back to the home and optimize family health trajectories.

Characterisation of neonatal Staphylococcus capitis NRCS-A isolates compared with non NRCS-A Staphylococcus capitis from neonates and adults.

Staphylococcus capitis is a frequent cause of late-onset sepsis in neonates admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). One clone of S. capitis, NRCS-A has been isolated from NICUs globally although the reasons for the global success of this clone are not well understood.We analysed a collection of S. capitis colonising babies admitted to two NICUs, one in the UK and one in Germany as well as corresponding pathological clinical isolates. Genome analysis identified a population structure of three groups; non-NRCS-A isolates, NRCS-A isolates, and a group of 'proto NRCS-A' - isolates closely related to NRCS-A but not associated with neonatal infection. All bloodstream isolates belonged to the NRCS-A group and were indistinguishable from strains carried on the skin or in the gut. NRCS-A isolates showed increased tolerance to chlorhexidine and antibiotics relative to the other S. capitis as well as enhanced ability to grow at higher pH values. Analysis of the pangenome of 138 isolates identified characteristic nsr and tarJ genes in both the NRCS-A and proto groups. A CRISPR-cas system was only seen in NRCS-A isolates which also showed enrichment of genes for metal acquisition and transport.We found evidence for transmission of S. capitis NRCS-A within NICU, with related isolates shared between babies and multiple acquisitions by some babies. Our data show NRCS-A strains commonly colonise uninfected babies in NICU representing a potential reservoir for potential infection. This work provides more evidence that adaptation to survive in the gut and on skin facilitates spread of NRCS-A, and that metal acquisition and tolerance may be important to the biology of NRCS-A. Understanding how NRCS-A survives in NICUs can help develop infection control procedures against this clone.

Mobile applications to support parents in the transition from neonatal intensive care unit to home: a narrative review.

Among the unique challenges for parents in the transition of infant care from neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to home are the medical complexity of their babies and the psychological burden of caring for this special patient population. Despite the increased use and accessibility of smartphones, mobile applications (apps) intended for use by families during this transition remain underdeveloped and understudied. Apps to support parents of infants in the NICU represent an accessible potential solution to mitigate existing disparities in follow up. Through this Narrative Review, we intend to describe the characteristics of and development process for apps intended to address the challenges parents with NICU babies may face, and to provide recommendations for further development of apps for this purpose. We conducted a review of articles published between November 2012 to November 2022. This search spanned three major databases, PubMed, Embase, and CINAHL, using a controlled vocabulary and keywords for mobile apps and the NICU. These three databases generated 473 articles for review. Utilizing the online primary screening and data extraction tool Covidence, we ultimately included eight articles in this narrative review. There are few existing mobile apps intended to ease the transition home for parents of babies in the NICU. There are even fewer apps that have been critically evaluated using acceptable methods and produced with contribution from healthcare practitioners. Among the existing articles on app solutions to benefit education and socioemotional support for parents, many emphasized the importance of including key stakeholders during the app development process and highlighted both qualitative and quantitative measures for assessing relative success of these apps in a clinical setting. Although the experiences of parents with infants admitted to the NICU have been well-studied, there remain relatively few existing apps to provide educational and socioemotional support to this population. Future studies should focus on an iterative process of app development whereby both parents and providers are closely involved, in combination with critical appraisal of the app to assess for appropriate support and education of caregivers.

A Comprehensive Echocardiographic Assessment of Neonatal Right Ventricular Function in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Babies.

Background The right ventricle (RV) in the fetus is the predominant chamber, accounting for about 60% of the total cardiac output. The majority of the RV outflow volume is diverted from the pulmonary artery via the ductus arteriosus to the descending aorta. After birth, the RV undergoes extensive structural and functional modifications. The RV undergoes an improper transition from fetal to neonatal circulation in sick neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) babies. Functional echocardiography is now commonly being used in most NICUs as it is a noninvasive and bedside investigation that gives an immediate evaluation of hemodynamics and can be taken into consideration as an extension of clinical assessment to study a critically unwell neonate. Therefore, a study of RV functions in NICU neonates will help in better understanding the neonatal cardiopulmonary response to different diseases. Thus, this study aimed to assess RV functions in neonates getting admitted to the NICU of a tertiary care institute. Methodology This observational, cross-sectional study was approved by the Research & Recognition Committee of Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune. In total, 35 cases of term neonates admitted to the NICU at Dr. D. Y. Patil Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre, Pune who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were enrolled in this study after obtaining consent from their parents. Two-dimensional echocardiography was performed by a trained pediatric cardiologist, and the findings were substantiated by a neonatologist trained in echocardiography. Results Our study found a strong associationbetween tricuspid inflow velocity and neonates with sepsis. Similarly, a significant association was observed betweenabnormal tricuspid Inflow velocity (E/A and E/E')andneonates requiring inotropic support. Conclusions Data on the normal values of different echocardiographic parameters of the systolic and diastolic function of the RV during the neonatal phase of life are currently limited. Our data offer preliminary insights into this topic. Early echocardiography and intervention are advisable, especially in neonates with sepsis and requiring inotropic support.

NeoConnect: The Design, Implementation, and Impact of a Virtual Family-Centered NICU Program.

Familial involvement in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) reduces parental stress and strengthens parental-infant bonding. However, parents often face barriers to in-person visitation. The coronavirus disease-2019 COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated limitations to parental bedside presence. To design, implement, and evaluate a technology-based program to connect NICU babies with their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. We created NeoConnect at our level IV NICU, which included parental audio recordings and video chats between parents and their babies. Parental and NICU staff input on NeoConnect was gathered via preimplementation surveys. Inaugural families and staff members completed a postparticipation survey. Prior to implementation, all parents who were surveyed (n = 24) wished they could be more involved in their baby's care. In the first 3 months of NeoConnect, 48 families participated in the audio recording project and 14 families participated in the video chat initiative. Following implementation, 85% of surveyed staff (28/33) reported that the patients became calmer when listening to their parents' recorded voice and 100% of surveyed parents (6/6) reported that video chats reduced their stress level. Harnessing technology as a tool to increase parental involvement in the NICU is feasible and beneficial for NICU patients and their families.

Audiological Risk Factors, Referral Rates and Dropouts: 9 Years of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening in North Sardinia.

Background: Objectives of the present work were to analyze the prevalence of hearing loss in our population of screened newborns during the first 9 years of the universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) program at University Hospital Sassari (Italy) (AOU Sassari), to analyze the risk factors involved, and to analyze our effectiveness in terms of referral rates and dropout rates. Methods: Monocentric retrospective study whose target population included all the newborns born or referred to our hospital between 2011 and 2019. Results: From 2011 to 2019, a total of 11,688 babies were enrolled in our screening program. In total, 3.9‰ of wellborn babies and 3.58% of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) babies had some degree of hearing loss. The most frequently observed risk factors among non-NICU babies were family history of hearing loss (3.34%) and craniofacial anomalies (0.16%), among NICU babies were low birth weight (54.91%) and prematurity (24.33%). In the multivariate analysis, family history of hearing loss (p < 0.001), NICU (p < 0.001), craniofacial anomalies (p < 0.001), low birth weight (<1500 g) (p = 0.04) and HIV (p = 0.03) were confirmed as risk factors. Conclusions: Our data are largely consistent with the literature and most results were expected, one relevant exception being the possible role of NICU as a confounding factor and the limited number of risk factors confirmed in the multivariate analysis.

NeoWear: An IoT-connected e-textile wearable for neonatal medical monitoring

According to WHO, 15 millions babies are born preterm each year globally. Preterm infant (born before 37 weeks of gestation) are at a significantly higher risk of medical and surgical morbidity in comparison to babies born at term (around 37 weeks). Innovative solutions are warranted to meet the increased requirements of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with rising number of preterm babies. Various kinds of vital signs such as heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR) or blood oxygen level (SpO2) are monitored in NICU. Considering the fact the lungs develop in the last few weeks of gestation, preterm babies in NICU demands sophisticated technology to monitor respiration and events related to the respiration. Current technologies rely on the indirect measurements from thoracic impedance or other invasive techniques for RR monitoring. This poses discomfort and risk of infections to babies. Also, the delivery of parental and clinical care is largely impacted by a large number of monitoring cables placed on the babies. To address this requirements, we have developed an Internet-of-Things (IoT) based smart textile chest belt called “NeoWear” to monitor RR and detect apnea events in babies. The NeoWear is a wearable system consisting of a sensor belt, a wearable embedded system, and an edge computing device. The sensor belt comprised of a pressure sensors made of smart-textile and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to monitor movements. These sensors are connected to a micro-controller equipped with wireless communication capabilities called as a wireless embedded system (WES). The WES wirelessly connects with an edge computing device (ECD) using an MQTT-based IoT networking architecture. ECD is capable to offer signal processing and computing services to detect RR and apnea events. Simulation experiments using a high-fidelity, programmable NICU baby mannequin and five healthy adults were conducted to test the efficacy of the NeoWear System. Our findings shows an average error of 0.89 BrPM in respiration rate measurement and ∼97 percent accuracy in apnea detection on baby mannequin. Our experiments also demonstrated that how the movements of the baby mannequin affected the respiration signal during apnea episodes and when breathing rate increased to 40 breaths per minute. In addition, the changes on human respiration data showed a meaningful increase for slow, normal and fast breathing. We also computed computation and communication latencies and they were found to be ∼66 and 22 ms, respectively. Our preliminary results are promising showing the efficacy of NeoWear to measure respiration and related events for babies.

Otoacoustic Emission Hearing Screening of Newborns In Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana

Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine outcomes of new-born hearing screening and identify possible causes of hearing loss in NICU Admissions.Method: The research is a cross sectional study of new born screening conducted on all consenting consecutive new- born who are healthy and seen at the post-delivery ward, and NICU outpatient department of KBTH. Associations or differences in variables were examined using chi-squared test. P-value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: A total of 483 babies were screened during the period. The incidence of hearing loss in the new-born was 7.2%. More than half of the new-born were 4 weeks or less weeks (n=254, 52.6%) and the rest were greater than 4 weeks (n=229, 47.4%). The mean age (±SD) of the new-born are 3.94 (±2.09) and 3.80 (±2.16) weeks in the admitted and not admitted group respectively. It was revealed that 27% of the babies were admitted at Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) because of prematurity and Macrosomia (from diabetic mothers) respectively. Among the babies that were admitted, 7 failed the OAE and 101 passed. In the not admitted group, 28 failed OAE test and the rest passed (n=347). This study revealed that, there was no statistically significant association of hearing loss between babies admitted to NICU and Non-NICU babies (p= 0.728).Conclusions: The incidence of hearing loss among the new-born was 7.2% and the main reason for NICU admission are prematurity, big baby, Birth asphyxia, neonatal jaundice, neonatal sepsis, small baby and vacuum delivery. There is no statistically significantassociation between these different group babies with hearing loss.

'Opportunity to bond and a sense of normality': Parent and staff views of cuddling babies undergoing therapeutic hypothermia in neonatal intensive care: 'CoolCuddle'.

BackgroundCurrently, parents whose sick babies are undergoing three days of cooling therapy for hypoxic–ischaemic encephalopathy in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are not permitted to cuddle their cooled babies, due to concerns of warming the baby or dislodging breathing tubes or vascular catheters. Parents want to stay and care for their cooled babies and have reported that bonding is adversely affected when they are not permitted to hold them.Design and ParticipantsQualitative interviews with 21 parents of cooled babies in NICU (11 mothers and 10 fathers) and 10 neonatal staff (4 consultants and 6 nurses) explored their views and experiences of an intervention to enable parents to cuddle their cooled babies (CoolCuddle). Thematic analysis methods were used to develop the themes and compare them between parents and staff.ResultsFive themes were produced. Three themes were comparable between parents and staff: Closeness, a sense of normality and reassurance and support. An additional parent theme reflected their mixed feelings about initial participation as they were apprehensive, but felt that it was an amazing opportunity. Parents and staff described the closeness between parents and babies as important for bonding and breastfeeding. Fathers particularly appreciated the opportunity to hold and bond with their infants. Parents valued the reassurance and support received from staff, and the cuddles helped them feel more normal and more like a family at a very stressful time. In a final staff theme, they discussed the skills, number of staff and training needed to undertake CoolCuddle in NICU.ConclusionsParents cuddling their babies during cooling therapy enhanced parent–infant bonding and family‐centred care in NICU and was positively received. Adverse perinatal mental health, impaired mother–infant bonding and their effects on the establishment of breastfeeding may be ameliorated by introducing CoolCuddle.Patient ContributionOur parent advisors contributed to the interview topic guides and endorsed the themes from the analysis.

Psychological impact of neonatal intensive care unit admissions on parents: A regional perspective.

This study aimed to report the prevalence of adverse psychological symptoms and health behaviours of parents who had a baby admitted to a regional neonatal intensive care unit to spotlight mental health care in these unique settings. This was a prospective, prevalence-based study using quantitative data. The study was conducted at the Townsville University Hospital, Queensland. Participants comprised 114 parents of 79 infants enrolled in the study (mothers=69 and fathers=45). Trauma, depression, anxiety, stress, alcohol and drug use, prior mental health history and bonding experience were assessed by standardised self-report questionnaires and a structured diagnostic interview within 2weeks and at 3months post-admission to neonatal intensive care unit. Clinically significant acute trauma symptoms (16% of mothers only), depression (22% mothers; 4% of fathers), anxiety (27% mothers; 11% fathers) and stress (24% mothers; 13% fathers) were reported within the first 2weeks after their baby was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Notably, 18% of parents reported engaging in harmful alcohol use behaviour within 2weeks post-birth; 29% of fathers continued to report risky drinking at 3months. At 3months, 21%, 8% and 6% of mothers met diagnostic criteria for generalised anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, respectively. Screening for psychological distress and alcohol use of parents of neonatal intensive care unit babies can ensure that support services are made available post-discharge to optimise family function and development of the preterm infant.

Application of otoacoustic emissions and brainstem evoked response audiometry in newborn hearing screening

&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background: &lt;/strong&gt;Newborn hearing screening was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in a step by step manner using otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and brainstem evoked response audiometry (BERA) and details were recorded.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods:&lt;/strong&gt; A prospective institutional based study was conducted. All the newborns born in the hospital over a period of 18 months from December 2018 to May 2020 were considered in the study. Healthy newborns were screened bedside within 24 hours of delivery and NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) babies were screened in the NICU. Handheld OAE apparatus was used as the initial screening tool. A total of 3 OAEs were done for babies with a “refer” result in the OAEs, which were done 1 month apart. Babies with a “refer” in the third OAE were subjected for BERA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results:&lt;/strong&gt; A total of 14226 babies were screened at 24-48 hours of birth. Among them, 13,069 babies passed the first OAE screening in both ears. Remaining babies were referred for further follow-up. After subsequent follow-ups and successive testing, 11 babies were found to have hearing loss, which was diagnosed within 4-5 months of the child’s birth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusions: &lt;/strong&gt;Universal newborn hearing screening is the need of the day. OAE is an effective screening tool for newborn hearing loss. When complemented by BERA, majority of congenitally deaf babies can be diagnosed at a very early age. This helps in early intervention.&lt;/p&gt;

Pasteurized Donor Human Milk Should Not Replace Mother's Own Milk in Preterm Neonates: A Quality Initiative Toward Decreasing the “PDHM Dependency”

Aim: Mother's own milk (MOM) is the preferred source of neonatal nutrition. Due to various challenges, mothers are often unable to provide exclusive MOM to neonates admitted in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and depend on pasteurized donor human milk (PDHM). The aim of this quality improvement (QI) initiative was to enable mothers to provide MOM and consequently decrease the "PDHM dependency." Methods: Neonates <32 weeks of gestation (n = 120) were included. A multidisciplinary team was formed, and a detailed root cause analysis was done to understand the cause of PDHM dependency during the observation phase (November 1 to December 15, 2019). Various evidence-based practices were planned, tested, and implemented through Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles during the intervention phase (December 16, 2019 to January 31, 2020). These were further strengthened and adopted as a unit culture during the maintenance phase (February 1 to July 31, 2020). Results from the observation and intervention phases were compared. Results: Within 6 weeks of QI interventions, the average proportion of MOM significantly increased from 74.4% to 93.5% (p = 0.0003), and the proportion of PDHM significantly decreased from 20.5% to 4.6% (p = 0.005). The proportion of MOM remained at 82.5% during the maintenance phase. There was a significant decrease in the number of days to reach full feeds and regain birth weight. Conclusions: Provision of PDHM from our newly functional milk bank led to a reduced drive to express MOM in mothers of NICU babies. Our QI project focused on various strategies to improve MOM feeding and reduce PDHM dependence.

Improving Early Colostrum Feeding in a Tertiary Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Quality Improvement Initiative.

Background and Objective: Colostrum feeding is known for its immune benefits for reduction in nosocomial sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, and ventilator-associated pneumonias. Colostrum feeding also helps in improving breastfeeding rates and early discharge of vulnerable neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) babies. The objective of this study was to improve early colostrum feeding/oropharyngeal colostrum administration in a busy tertiary NICU in India. Methods: Multiple plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles were conducted from January 2020 to September 2020 to improve early colostrum feeding rates in NICU babies to >60%. We tested change ideas such as training of health care personnel, counseling of mothers and families about importance of colostrum expression and feeding, bedside collection of colostrum, safe transportation of colostrum to the NICU, and electronic data handling. Sustainability of the interventions was studied from October 2020 to March 2021 and data were analyzed. Results: Early colostrum feeding rates improved from a baseline of 4.36-68.21% after six PDSA cycles through 9 months. After counseling of mothers and families of NICU babies, rates of breastfeeding and colostrum feeding improved to 98.8% and 97.11%, respectively. The early breast stimulation and colostrum expression rates also improved to 87.28% and 68.2%, respectively. Early colostrum feeding rate was 87.5% after 6 months through the sustainability phase. Conclusions: Quality improvement interventions significantly improved the rate of early colostrum feeding in sick babies admitted to a busy NICU, and the improvement was sustained for 6 months.

“What are you carrying?” Experiences of mothers with preterm babies in low-resource setting neonatal intensive care unit: a qualitative study

IntroductionBabies born preterm often have challenges in feeding, temperature control and breathing difficulty and are prone to infection during the neonatal period. These usually necessitate admission to the neonatal intensive...

Successful Control of Human Parainfluenza Type 3 Outbreak in a Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Human parainfluenza (HPIV) is a common cause for upper respiratory tract illnesses (URTI) and lower respiratory tract illnesses (LRTI) in infants and young children. Here, we describe successful control of an HPIV type 3 (HPIV3) outbreak in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). NICU babies with new-onset clinical signs or symptoms of RTI and positive HPIV-3 nasopharyngeal specimen by respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) test on hospital day 14 or later were diagnosed with hospital-onset (HO) HPIV-3 infection. After 3 NICU babies were diagnosed with HO HPIV-3, an outbreak investigation was initiated on May 3, 2019, and continued for 2 incubation periods since the last identified case. Enhanced infection prevention measures were immediately implemented. All positive cases were placed in a cohort in a single pod of the NICU and were placed on contact precautions with droplet isolation precautions. Dedicated staffing and equipment were assigned. Environmental cleaning and disinfection with hospital-approved disinfectant wipes was performed daily. Visitors were restricted in the NICU. All employees entering the NICU underwent daily symptom screening for respiratory tract illness. All NICU babies were screened daily for respiratory tract illness with prompt isolation and RPP testing on positive screen. To determine the source of the HPIV3 outbreak, all HPIV3-positive specimens from the NICU and available temporally associated community-onset (CO) controls collected from non-NICU units were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis. The first and last cases of HPIV-3 were diagnosed on May 1 and May 5, 2019, respectively. In total, 7 HO HPIV3 cases were reported: 1 in newborn nursery (NBN) and 6 in NICU. The case from the NBN was determined to be unrelated to the outbreak and the source was linked to a sick visitor. Of the 6 NICU babies, 5 had an LRTI and 1 had a URTI. Average time from admission to diagnosis was 71 days (range, 24–112). None had severe illnesses requiring intubation, and all had full recovery. No CO HPIV3 cases were reported from the NICU during the investigation. A maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of HPIV3 WGS (Figure 1) showed that sequences from the 6 HO cases clustered together separately from the 3 CO controls, suggesting a single source of transmission, and 3 CO cases were not related to the HO cases or source of the outbreak. Early diagnosis and isolation of respiratory tract viral infections is important to prevent an outbreak. Successful control of outbreak in NICU requires prompt implementation of infection prevention measures with focus on symptom screening, cohorting, and disinfection practices.Funding: NoDisclosures: None

A Study of JCIH (Joint Commission on Infant Hearing) Risk Factors for Hearing Loss in Babies of NICU and Well Baby Nursery at a Tertiary Care Center.

Babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) have an additional risk for hearing loss due to various risk factors like, prematurity, low birth weight, mechanical ventilation, hyperbillirubinemia, ototoxic drugs, low APGAR score etc. as compared to the babies from well baby nursery (WBN) who, poses risk factors mostly family history, syndromic deafness. So the present study was aimed know the risk factors responsible for hearing loss in NICU and WBN babies and to assess the incidence of deafness. A total of 800 babies from NICU (n = 402) and WBN (n = 398) underwent hearing screening from a tertiary care center. Hearing screening was done using two staged screening protocol as per JCIH guidelines with Distortion product Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (DPOAE) and Automated Auditory Brainstem Responses (A-ABR). According to DPOAE test, 311 from NICU and 383 from WBN passed the test and during second screening, 80 out of 91 from NICU and 11 out of 13 from WBN passed the DPOAE test. Further BERA was done at the 3rd month of corrected age where 6 out of 11 showed positive responses from NICU and 3 babies from WBN had profound hearing loss. Data analysis revealed that family history of deafness, anemia and hypertension in ANC, TORCH in mother, low Apgar score and hyperbillirubinemia in newborns were a major risk factor for hearing impairment. We conclude that the diagnoses of auditory disorders at early stage due to various risk factors are important since appropriate therapeutic intervention and rehabilitation would help in better development of children.

The Next Generation of NICU Staff

The article offers information on Southern California, there were programs available that provided in-depth Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) classes and clinical training in both programs have subsequently closed, and leaving nowhere for therapists to get basic NICU training Topics include the goal is to reach out to NICU babies' parents and family to support them while their baby is in our care

Learning from Wildfire Disaster Experience in California NICUs.

Wildfires have been affecting California greatly, and vulnerable patients in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are not exempt. Our aim was to learn how personnel working in NICUs of California hospitals handled issues of neonatal transfer during wildfire disasters in recent years, with an ultimate goal to share lessons learned with healthcare teams on disaster preparedness. We identified California fires through newspaper articles and the CalFire.gov list. We determined which hospitals were affected and contacted members of the healthcare team through connections via the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative (CPQCC) database. We audio recorded interviews over phone or remote conferencing software or by written survey. We coded and analyzed transcripts and survey responses. While describing disaster preparedness, equipment (such as bassinets and backpacks), ambulance access/transport and documentation/charting were noted as important and essential. Teamwork, willingness to do other tasks that are not part of typical job descriptions, and unconventional strategies contribute to the success of keeping NICU babies safe when California wildfire strikes. Healthcare teams developed ingenious and surprising ways to evacuate NICU babies.

Benefits of 100% human milk diet in preterm infants: NICU Nurses Survey

Background: Hundred percent human milk diet plays a vital part in the nutritional management of preterm infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). NICU nurses play an important role in the management of nutrition and growth of preterm infants, who will also oversee the implementation of an exclusive human milk diet (EHMD) in the NICU. Objective: To understand the NICU nurses' perspectives on the benefits of 100% human milk diet through human milk-derived nutritional products in preterm infants. Material and Methods: Online survey was conducted through Google Forms which had nine questions on the benefits of human milk-based nutrition finalized by expert neonatologists. An online survey link was shared with the NICU nurses through emails and text messages. A request was made to the neonatologists and head nurses to disseminate the survey link with their counterparts and colleagues. Results: All the participants rated that exclusive breastfeeding or using 100% Human Milk Diet is very important for preterm babies in NICU [n=152 (100%)]. 46.7% (n=71) participants reported that seventy calories pasteurized human breast milk, (PHBM – 70 Cal) is the best option for preterm infants when the mother’s own milk (MOM) is unavailable. 84.9% (n=129) of the participants stated that the Human milk-based fortifier (HMDF) – Mother’s Milk Fortifier (MMF) is the best option for fortification. 96% (n=146) participants were satisfied with the safety and tolerance of 100% human milk-based products like PHBM - 70 calories and MMF. Conclusion: The majority of the NICU nurses in India are aware of the benefits of human milk and 100% human milk diet in preterm infants. Human milk-derived nutritional products; HMDF (MMF) and 70 Calories are reported to be having good tolerance and safety in preterm infants by most of the NICU nurses. Having regular training sessions about EHMD for NICU nurses would be impactful.