The coronavirus crisis has completely disrupted our lives, and also births, including those of premature babies who arrive in the world before their time.
Hospital protocols have been modified by the pandemic and in many cases they have also affected the usual protocols in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) of the hospitals where premature babies are admitted, that is, those born before week 37 gestation, or term newborns requiring hospitalization.
In Spain, approximately seven percent of babies are born prematurely, most of them between 32 and 37 weeks of gestation.
These babies need special care and the presence of the parents is not a whim, but is key to their recovery, an essential medicine to get ahead.
“In times of health crisis and pandemic, it is still mandatory for the premature newborn to receive love, stimulation, care and security from their parents in the neonatal unit”, point out the nurses specialized in Neonatology and those responsible for the Nursing section of the Foundation NeNe, Nuria Herranz and Maite Montes.
Parents are not visitors
But in the context of the pandemic, the arrival of premature babies has been marked by the restrictions established in neonatal units that “did not take into account the unique and exceptional nature that measures such as skin-to-skin contact, as well as breastfeeding maternal, have to promote the neurodevelopment and global health of premature babies, according to the conclusions of an analysis carried out by the NeNe Foundation, created by specialists in Neonatal Neurology.
“The premature newborn and his family have the right to receive optimal health care, regardless of the public health scenario in which we find ourselves,” claimed the president of the NeNe Foundation, Alfredo GarcÃa-Alix, a leading neonatologist national and international in the neurological development of premature babies.
During the pandemic, neonatal units have suffered unevenly from the interruption of their open door policy and the integrative approach of the family, restricting entry to a single parent and with time limits .
From the Foundation they denounce that “the parents returned to be visitors, which dragged us to the last century”, that “homogeneous drastic norms were adopted without taking into account the needs of the family and the premature newborn individually, even when it was extremely serious. “
Key practices in caring for premature babies such as skin-to-skin care, breastfeeding, donating breast milk to milk banks, and early home discharge programs underwent major changes during the first months of the pandemic.
And although now they have been normalizing, “it is essential to recover the whole set of measures and actions that characterize the care approach to family-centered care, which has widely proven to be beneficial for babies and parents,” say the experts.
Remember that, even in the current difficult circumstances, the free access of mothers and fathers to Neonatal Units in general and to Neonatal Intensive Care Units in particular, and to facilitate the participation of parents in the care of the baby is still crucial. premature for its correct neurodevelopment and to establish the affective bond and the parental role.
Technology, an ally in times of pandemic
Video calls and cameras installed in the NICUs of some hospitals allow parents to see their babies through a screen, thus reducing the stress of not being able to be present.
But technology is not enough. Babies need to feel the warmth and closeness of their parents, they need to feel that they are being touched and held. We already know the benefits of the Kangaroo Method and how important it is to touch and talk to the baby to establish a solid emotional bond and improve its development.
Hospitals should seek all the solutions at their disposal, following strict anti-Covid controls, so that parents can spend as much time as possible with their premature and non-premature babies who are admitted to NICUs.
From the NeNe Foundation they believe it is crucial that systematic and periodic screening with diagnostic tests (antigens and / or CRP) be established without delay for the parents of premature children who will have a prolonged admission. This would reduce the stress on families and caregivers and facilitate the recovery of the family-centered care scenario.
In Babies and more | Every year between 1,000 and 1,100 premature babies are born in Spain before week 28
