I have never had a baby on the neonatal unit, in fact, I’ve been a pretty lucky mama when it has come to my pregnancies and the health of my babies. Sure, my labours have been a bit shaky but so have lots of women’s labours, but often in so many cases, tough labours are followed by the stress of having a baby who perhaps wasn’t ready to join the world and has to stay on the neonatal unit without his or her parents.
So with that in mind, you may well want to know why I am writing to you about #ParentPower and the latest secure video messaging technology that is connecting parents to babies in neonatal units up and down the country and the answer is simple: because as a mother I can’t imagine not being with my new baby 24/7 and anything that could help a mother (or father) in that position, who has to leave their heart in a separate place, is something I want to shout about.
Something we don’t talk about very often in my family is my mum’s loss and the triplets that she had before she had me. Mum was delighted when she found out she was pregnant with triplets, she always wanted a big family, but sadly, late on in her pregnancy she developed fulminating toxaemia and her triplets were born early. James, the only little boy, passed away within hours, Robyn survived for two short days on the special care unit and Lydia lived for 9 weeks. Being so ill after her labour, mum stayed in hospital too but she knows only too well the heartbreak that comes with not being able to hold your baby in your arms because they are too small, not being able to hold them against your chest because they need to stay in an incubator.
Naturally as Lydia lived for 9 weeks and this was back in the 80s , my dad had to go back to work. It’s not uncommon for Dad’s to return to work with out limited paternity laws nowadays, but can you imagine doing so and knowing that your child is in the hospital, that you might not be able to make the visiting hours? So many people can. People you know too. Your mum, your friend, your sibling – you will almost certainly know someone who has a child that needed extra care on the neonatal unit, so even if you haven’t been affected yourself, that is why it is so important to support the #ParentPower movement.
I spoke to mum about vCreate, a new and secure video messaging service that is available to neonatal units at no cost – to the units OR the parents. The average clip is only 20 seconds, takes 40 seconds to encode and the whole process – from recording to sending – takes 3 minutes for the nursing staff to create. 3 minutes to help give parents and extended family that connection and bond with their child, whilst enhancing family centred care goals, engulfing the parents in the care of their baby that they can otherwise feel isolated from – something that mum has said she felt with both the triplets and myself as I was also slightly premature and had to spend time on the care unit. The service was given a test drive in Glasgow and you can see the overwhelming praise for it in this video.
The opportunity to increase the health and wellbeing of parents by connecting them to their children, by making them feel more a part of the process and less isolated is something that we can’t miss out on. On top of this, statistics show that having a journal and record to look back on your baby’s progression can be really important for helping with coming to terms with your experience. That is why vCreate’s videos are downloaded and yours to keep once your child leaves the unit, at which point the unit delete your videos and remove your data in compliance with Data Protection.
We’re not selling you anything here either, we’re not trying to make a buck out of a difficult time, this is a service that is free for parents and the NHS, it is being funded through commercial sponsorship and we want you to share as much information about it as possible so that EVERY unit will have the tech and every family can be better connected to their child. I am throwing all my support behind this wonderful gift to parents with children in the neonatal units and I am asking you to share your stories using the tag #ParentPower. Bring parents back into the room, even when they can’t be .
Want to know more? Check out what the NHS has to say here.
What an amazing idea! My first was born 5 weeks early and spent 4 of those in SCBU, 2 of which i spent in hospital recovering but at least i could spend the days with him (when i wasn’t having to wait for doctors to come see me! ) and the remaining 2 weeks i was sent home, which seemed great as it meant i could come and go as i wanted freely, but literally within days my milk dried up and by the time he came home I could no longer produce. I think this video would be invaluable for a situation like this, and helping a mother keep that bond with her baby when she cannot be there.
It is wonderful isn’t it?
As someone whose both babies were on NICU because of their prematurity this would have made things so much easier, especially with my second.
Again that helps parents through that emotional time can only be a good thing.
I couldn’t agree more!
This is an absolutely incredible idea! When my daughter was born premature she was on nicu for 3 months, my Oh had to return to work as he’s self employed & there were days I couldn’t make it. I didn’t drive at the time and after having a csection I could barely walk. I would have been so thankful for this! Luckily we met some amazing nurses who would wrote a daily journal for us included photos and I’ve treasured it.