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Interacting With Your Preemie

Interacting with your preemie can be a very intimidating experience. The natural mothering instincts are present yet restricted by wires, isolettes, the physcial appearance of your tiny baby, anxiety, and a feeling of not knowing what to do. I remember walking into our private NICU room for the first time after surgery it was 1 am. My husband rolled the wheelchair up to the isolette and I immediately stood up and starting processing how I was going to get to my babies. I remember this moment when I was looking at the nurse, back at my babies, and then at my husband and all I could say with tears in my eyes was, "give them to me now I want them". In our situation the nurse agreed, although very reluctantly, and prefaced it by telling me it would only be for a couple of minutes. That chaotic moment of contact is not what most new moms experience, but it was mine, and I will never forget it! Each new preemie mom has their own story about how and when they finally interacted with their preemie post delivery. The days, weeks, or months following take on new meaning as we are taught by our NICU nurses interaction techniques, ways to bond with them, and how to feed them. Here is some information to help you prepare to help care for your preemie. Watch for your baby's cues to know how he/she is feeling. You will hear many of these "key words" over and over again during your preemie's NICU duration.


Special Considerations for Premature Infants
Premature infants must fight to survive in a world that they are not yet scheduled to enter for weeks or months. Inside the mother, the infant is shielded from the full intensity of stimulation such as sights, sounds and movements. The premature infant's central nervous system is not yet equipped to handle the environment, and easily becomes overstimulated. This can cause the infant to feel stressed. The Developmental Care Model seeks to minimize environmental stress in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and improve developmental outcomes.  
What is Overstimulation?
Have you ever felt hopped up from too much caffeine? Or had a cold medicine that didn't agree with you? Remember that jittery feeling, like you could crawl out of your skin? Maybe you've felt overstimulated by sounds, and could not tune out routine noises, like the sound of machinery or air conditioning. Perhaps you became more aware of the clothes on your body. You may have wished you didn't have to talk to anyone, and that no one would talk to you. Maybe you wished you could escape to a quiet place. Do you get the idea of what it feels like to be overstimulated?
How Will I Know If My Baby Is Overstimulated?
Premature babies tell us they are overstimulated in many ways. Signs and signals of stress are grouped into three areas: autonomic, state-related, and motor stress signals. I have indeed seen virtually all of these stress signals exhibited by premies while working with infants and families in the NICU.
Autonomic or Visceral Stress Signals
Significant increase or decrease in breathing rate
Pauses in respiration
Changes in breathing patterns
Decrease in blood oxygen level
Changes in skin color, such as turning red, pale blue, ashy gray or mottled
Startling, tremoring or twitching
Gagging, gasping, spitting up, straining with or without a bowel movement
Coughing, sneezing, hiccuping
Yawning, sighing
State-Related Stress Signals
Whimpering sounds, facial twitches, or appearance of smiling
Eyes staring or floating, avoiding gaze, panicked look, glassy eyed
Irritability, fussing, crying
Fluctuations of state systems, such as drowsy to sleep state, and back to drowsy
Increased motor activity while asleep
When awake and alert, the infant may not be able to handle focusing, and may look away (gaze avert)
Motor Stress Signals
Limpness of body, arms, legs or face
Tenseness of body, arms or legs
Splaying (spreading) of fingers
Grimacing
Hands in front of face, with hands open or fisted
Frantic flailing of arms and legs
Identifying Stress Signals
Your baby communicates in many ways. The fact that s/he becomes easily overstimulated is not anyone's fault. S/he becomes easily overstimulated due to her/his premature birth.
Ask members of your infant's team to help you identify stress signals. Don't be too timid to ask. Don't think that you should already know, or that if you don't that you are a bad parent. Stress signals indicating overstimulation have been identified and researched through years of study by healthcare professionals who take care of premature infants. This information has to be learned. It does not come automatically to anyone!
But how can I interact with my baby without causing overstimulation?
You can learn to interact with your infant in a way that is comforting to the infant. You can also learn to help comfort your infant when s/he is stressed by noises and activity in the NICU.
I like the sound of that! Tell me more about what I can do to comfort my baby.
To avoid overstimulation, try offering only one input at a time:
Offer a pinky finger to grasp.
Place your hand gently but firmly on her/his back or bottom.
Speak slowly in a soft, soothing voice.
Use your hand to tuck your infant's feet and legs near her/his bottom.
Gently swaddle, reposition “snuggly” or “bendy bumper”, or place rolled blankets to help your infant feel contained.
Anything Else?
Most NICUs routinely do things to insure the comfort of premature infants. You could review your child's NICU environment with her/his team for changes and improvements.
Does your child have a “snuggly” and “bendy bumper” or other containment?
Is the lighting low in the NICU, with additional protection to block out the light to your infant's isolette or crib?
Are there additional measures the NICU staff can pursue to reduce stimulation for your infant?
Is noise minimal? No radio? Quiet voices? Doors, hamper lids, drawers closed quietly, or padded to minimize noise?
Are more sensitive babies placed in low traffic, low noise areas?

Developmental Care in the NICU

How does my infant show s/he is not overstimulated?
Signals of an optimal state, indicating low stress, are the opposite of the stress signals.

Autonomic or Visceral Signals
Smooth breathing at a good rate
Good color
Good digestion
Motor Signals
Smooth movement and good muscle tone
Hand and foot clasping, grasping, hand to mouth movement, and sucking
State-Related Signals
Good sleep state
Good self quieting
Relatively easy to calm
Robust and rhythmic crying
Focused, alert attention to face of caregiver
Animated expressions

A Word About Feeding
Most babies are unable to feed by sucking on a bottle before 34 weeks gestation. Readiness for nipple feeding of course varies from baby to baby. If I observed 3 to 4 stress signals in the infant, I would gently attempt to feed. If I observed 8 to 12 or more stress signals, I would defer bottle feeding and recommend the infant be continued on tube feeds. Feeding readiness also depends on medical conditions, if any, such as motor or breathing problems.
Your infant's team feeding specialist could be a Speech Therapist (Speech Language Pathologist) or Occupational Therapist. Occupational Therapists often assist in individualizing your infant's needs for feeding readiness. Strategies suggested by Occupational Therapists for feeding your infant might include:
Swaddling to contain your child, holding firmly
Minimizing movement during feeding
Placing the nipple in the baby's mouth and holding it still
Stroking the cheek once or twice gently if needed to encourage sucking
Maintaining a quiet environment with minimal talking to your infant during the feeding

SUMMARY
Developmental Care Model provides a framework for examining and responding to stress in premature infants. By minimizing stress, the infant's chances to thrive are enhanced. This model has been studied with good evidence in terms of measures such as decreased duration of NICU stays and improved developmental outcomes. 

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