Infant journal

Current issue: November 2020

Embrace: supporting the health and wellbeing of our staff
Rose Kent, Cath Harrison

Embrace is a busy paediatric and neonatal transport service for Yorkshire and the Humber. Our activity is constant due to the wide range of patients we move, totalling over 2,200 transfers per year with a mix of intensive care transfers and repatriations. Evidence is emerging about the effects on staff mental health and coping abilities in an intensive care environment¹ and over the last few years we have focused on the mental and physical wellbeing of our staff. This article describes the measures we have put in place at Embrace to support health and wellbeing in our work place.

Health visitor’s role in supporting sick and preterm babies and their families
Vicky Gilroy, Alan Fenton

As nurses or midwives with additional training in specialist community public health, health visitors are in a unique position to provide support for families of babies who have spent time on NNUs, but consistent health visitor support is not universally available. We decided to investigate this with the aim of developing materials to support health visitors and parents through the initial transition period from the NNU to home.

Exposure to noise during neonatal transport and its impact on hearing
Tayyaba Yasmeen, David Young, Alex Cheyne, Stewart Guthrie

Very low birth weight infants and neonatal intensive care unit survivors have a well-recognised increased risk of hearing loss. Neonatal units and especially neonatal transportation are acknowledged as sources of excessive noise. Although noise is well recognised as a cause of hearing loss in adults, there is paucity of data in neonates. In this study we measure the noise level exposure to babies during inter-hospital transfer and assess any associated hearing loss over this period.

Effects of interactive behavioural cues-based massage on hyperbilirubinaemia, breastfeeding and growth of term infants
Supawadee Tubglam

Infant massage is indicated for increased weight gain and improved neurodevelopment in term and preterm infants. In addition, massage therapy has been known to decrease bilirubin levels and promote stool frequency in term infants and improve self-confidence in new mothers. This study evaluates the effects of an interactive behavioural cues-based infant massage programme on admission rates for hyperbilirubinaemia, frequency of breastfeeding and the growth of healthy term infants. The findings suggest that training mothers to identify infant behaviour cues has beneficial effects.

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From the November 2018 edition

FREE Cutting tongue ties may not help infants to breastfeed
Donna Geddes

A diagnosis of tongue tie - a shortened frenulum - is often given as the reason for low milk removal and/or insufficient weight gain in babies and the rates of frenotomy are rising as fast as the diagnoses. Older literature suggests surgical division is a simple solution for breastfeeding problems yet, instead of improving breastfeeding rates, the frenotomies may lead to early weaning. Work from the University of Western Australia (UWA) reveals that the majority of women whose babies have a frenotomy have low milk production that is not resolved by the procedure despite pain during breastfeeding being reduced.

FREE Surfactant therapy – past, present and future
Patrick M. McCrossan, David G. Sweet

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Current issue: November 2020

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