This amazing mural was done by the team at Northside Hospital Forsyth, Cumming, Georgia. Thanks for sharing!

What worked?

I think the education tips for staff and parents were amazing. It really got the conversation going for all of our staff – instead of just the ones who were already invested.  ~ Bonnie from Kelowna General, British Columbia

The Grandparent Challenge was super fun and spontaneous. Not sure you can buy that kind of enthusiasm.  ~ Luisa from Sunnybrook HSC, Ontario

I did a survey of grad parents and gathered some very powerful words that I shared with staff – this has been identified in our post-event survey as a very powerful motivator to get those babies onto their parents’ chests! ~ Joanna at Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, New Hampshire

We used a “I’m ready to Kangaroo!” laminated sign at each bedside. During rounds, eligibility for kangaroo care was discussed, thus making a VISIBLE team decision for each baby. ~ Tammy from Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, New Hampshire

Probably the most important outcome of our kangaroo-a-thon was the increased parent engagement on the unit. It was very rewarding to read the loving messages that many parents added to their infants’ kangaroos that they posted on the wall every time they did KC. Another highlight was the increased participation of dads on the unit and it was very rewarding to see them holding their infants in KC. It was also just what our unit needed to create the momentum that we needed to increase the use of our new wraps that had been acquired and introduced prior to the kangaroo-a-thon, but were not being used on a wide-scale yet.  ~ Stacy from Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital, Loma Linda, California.

We recently installed Roku boxes to the large tv screens in each pod, allowing us to personalize messages to parents and staff. They went live during the kangaroo a thon. I did notice that the hours of KC increased after this was up. We kept a running total of hours of KC and encouraged more of it. It worked!  ~  April from Woman’s Hospital, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

We had more parents in the unit and the families visited for longer periods of time. We saw infants in one weekend improve in their respiratory status going from HFOV to Conventional Ventilators, Ventilators to SiPap , one patient went from ventilator to HFNC all in one weekend. We saw weight gains on patients who had been maintaining, we had improved thermoregulations, we had happier parents and babies. ~ Kristin from Valley Children’s Healthcare NICU, Madera, California

The daily raffle draw for prizes (one for staff and one for parents) was a big motivator. We saw parents become more proactive and asking their nurse for KC time.  ~ Ashley from Erlanger Health  System NICU, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Our Neonatologist (and Medical Director) wore a kangaroo costume I bought for morning multidisciplinary rounds. What you can’t quite grasp is the fact that he is the LAST person anyone would think would wear a kangaroo costume. Everyone LOVED it and it was a great kick off to our Kangaroo-a-thon.  ~ Amy from Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I think the best part for me was when I went to collect the sheets at the end of the challenge and one dad said “Aw man, I can’t write on the sheet anymore? I wanted to get more hours than the whole sheet contained.” ~ Heather from Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial NICU, Orillia, Ontario. (Last year’s Level 2 winner! )

What could change?

Our neonatologist suggests that there be a category for “koala’ cuddling for volunteers. ~ Bonnie from Kelowna General, Kelowna, British Columbia.

We would love some funding! How did the rest of you go about getting any funding for your event?  Maybe we could have a running tally with all the hospitals on a website all together next year? And maybe a chat room where we could all be having a dialogue during the event? I think that would be really interesting.  ~ Amanda from Montreal Children’s, Quebec.

Level II specific education, We don’t have micro prems or long term vents so some of the education points, while interesting, were not as applicable. ~ The team from Peterborough, Ontario.

Find ways of communicating together during the challenge to cheer each other on! ~ multiple c enters

Find better ways of tallying hours.  ~ multiple centers

Start promoting earlier and bringing more team  members into the project.  This project really relies on an interdisciplinary approach ~ multiple centers

It’s hard to keep momentum going for two weeks. The first week is GREAT – how can we keep that going? ~ multiple centers

We also have a number of babies who have been in the NICU for over 1 month and many of 3 months, some over 6 and 12 months! So older babies can be challenging to do kangaroo care with, but we suggested to them to just do chest to chest holding. ~ Amanda from Montreal Children’s Hospital, Montreal, Quebec.

What next?

We are going to have a skills week set up for staff to practice transferring a baby on the jet, and also have staff practice having the parent pick the baby up out of the bed versus staff hand the baby to them. We are also going to be doing a year long incentive program with quarterly Rangers tickets, T-shirts, and other nurse staffing prizes (no float pass, no weekends for one schedule, etc.)  ~ Heather from Cook Children’s, Texas.

We plan on challenging some other Quebec hospitals next year. The response on our unit was amazing! ~ Amanda from Montreal Children’s Hospital, Montreal, Quebec.

I think it will be helpful to have extra kangaroo champions available periodically to encourage and support the bedside staff. ~ Debbie from Community Memorial Hospital, Venture, California.

Education of parents!! The nurses are all for KC but some of the parents haven’t bought into yet. ~ Dawn from Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, Reno, Nevada

If there was a way to find out how other units were doing or how they had done this might have helped with the competitive spirit of our group. We have some very competitive nurses on our unit. ~ Trisha from Women’s Hospital, Greenboro, North Carolina.

I think our docs and nnps could still be bigger zealots and explain to parents why KC is so important. Ask parents every day on rounds; remind them again about the importance…Parents want to do what’s best for their children and we need to teach them about this. ~ Howard from Salem Oregon (last year’s winner!)

What interesting things did you learn (and/or did we learn from you)?

It was surprising to observe how competitive the families were with this challenge, and how they were interested in recording their hours daily.  ~ Donna from North York General, Ontario

We consider ALL of our babies eligible for skin to skin holding. Vents, chest tubes, umbilical lines are no barrier. The only time we stop is if a baby isn’t tolerating it well.  ~ Sheryl from Memorial Children’s Hospital, Indiana.

The eye-opening moment was realizing that kangaroo care is not only for pre-term but for term babies. We are going to concentrate on supporting kangaroo care not only the first few days of life but ongoing during the entire hospital stay. ~ Sandra, Northside Forsyth Hospital, Georgia.

Our longest baby held was 17 hours in 24 hours. ~ Lynn from IU Health North NICU Riley, Carmel, Indiana.

One nurse came to me to tell me how a baby was grunty and after a few minutes of skin to skin with the father, the baby settled and the vital signs were normal. She stated that this episode might have made her a believer in skin to skin. If one nurse was able to see the benefits to skin to skin than to me, this challenge was a success. ~ Lindsay from Thunder Bay NICU, Thunder Bay, Ontario.

We encourage skin to skin in the Operating Room if baby is stable, and also with any blood draws we will do skin to skin. We are now starting to engage the lab in this process also. ~ Margaret from Guelph General Hospital, Guelph, Ontario.

This year we had our L&D and LDRP units participate at the same time as us. They kept their own log sheets and educated patients and visitors on the importance of Kangaroo Care. ~ Diane from St Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

– – – – – – – –

Thank you all so much for sharing these thoughts and experiences with us.  What a remarkable community this is!  The generosity and dedication of all the Kangaroo Challenge participants is inspiring.  We would love to hear from you if you have suggestions for how to make things better or how to address some of the issues mentioned above.  We will continue to post and share what we learn, and are eager to keep this conversation going.

If you are wondering where your hospital stood in the grand scheme of things, here’s a graph that shows all participants and their totals (de-identified).   PDF: KC2016 (1) 

We know our American friends have big barriers to overcome regarding parental presence (i.e. different policies related to maternity and parental leave), so we are pretty impressed with their results.

Thanks again for being great sports, wonderful teams, and amazing people!

Happy holding!

The post More words from winners! appeared first on Your Health Matters.

You have been so patient as we’ve tallied up all the numbers you’ve sent in, and now it’s time for us to announce our winners. Out of 74 North American hospitals and 21 Australian hospitals, we are very excited to say (drumroll please) that the winners of the 2016 International Kangaroo Care Challenge are:

Level 2 winner:  North York General Hospital (Toronto, Ontario) with an average of 4.1 hours of holding per baby per day! 

 Level 3/4 Winner:  Alberta Children’s Hospital (Calgary, Alberta) with an average of 3.5 hours of holding per baby per day!

These numbers are fantastic, especially when we think of what they represent … hours upon hours of brain-boosting, attachment-building, stress-busting kangaroo cuddles!  The average length of time spent holding in Level 2 units was 1.74 hours per baby per day, and in Level 3 it was 0.98 hours, so our winners can really pat themselves on the back for a job well done.

Over the next few days we will be sharing some tips and tricks from the winners and from other units who accomplished some spectacular feats.  So please check back with us soon so we can continue to learn and improve together. Until then … happy holding!

The post We have a winner! (Two, actually) appeared first on Your Health Matters.

The PP stands for Preemie Power!

At our unit, we were able to hand out lovely WPD goodies, including bibs and pins from the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation, and custom made superhero capes from Loved From Head to Toe.   Our current NICU families came together and had cake and celebrated their wonderful babies and their equally wonderful accomplishments. Graduate families joined a multi-hospital celebration held downtown near the CN Tower. The location was chosen because the CN Tower, as part of the World Prematurity Day Global Illumination Project, was one of hundreds of international monuments that was glowing purple to honour preemies.  Thank you so much to the organizers and to the wonderful families who came out to celebrate.

Way to go, CN Tower!

If you’d like to see more beautiful buildings lit up in purple, read inspiring family stories, and find out about what other NICUs did across Canada, we encourage you to visit the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation’s Facebook page, which is filling up with amazing photographs and updates. And last but DEFINITELY not least – please take a moment and watch this amazing, incredible video made by a graduate family from our NICU.  It’s absolutely beautiful and it captures so much about the NICU experience in a few short moments.

Until next year … happy World Prematurity Day, and thank you for your support!

The post Oh, what a day that was! appeared first on Your Health Matters.

We think it’s really important for parents to have the chance to dress their babies up if they feel like it, so we take care of all the logistics and they bring the creativity. Every year we are lucky enough to receive beautiful donated hats, often from graduate NICU parents or grandparents, and the hat is often the inspiration for a costume. For example, you could be a football, or a wise little owl …

Or you could be Minnie or Mickey!

We always have a number of ballerinas and superheroes, and perhaps the reason why (apart from the fact that they’re cute and very appropriate for our babies!) is that it’s pretty easy to make these costumes quickly and safely with easy-to-find materials. For example, it takes about 15 minutes for a non-crafty person to make a tiny tutu for a baby ballerina.

You start with a piece of tulle that’s about 10 cm long and 4 cm wide, and you fold it in half. You then tie the tulle around a ribbon by poking the ends back through the loop you created. We used kind of a fancy ribbon here with extra trim, but plain ribbon or elastic works well too, as long as it’s washable.

You do this with more strips of tulle (no need to cut precisely) until you have a nice puffy tutu, and then you can close it up with either velcro dots or a quick knot.

Here’s what it looks like on a real baby …

This year at our first session we had a parent who is a real artist, and she created this in about 10 minutes with a blank onesie and some fabric markers. She’s really looking forward to busting this out at rounds on Halloween!

And finally we had another parent who was a whizz at cutting out felt and turning it into something amazing …

So it probably doesn’t surprise you, after seeing all of this,  if we say we can’t wait for Halloween! We hope these photos have inspired you to celebrate (if you choose) wherever you are.  So happy Halloween, and don’t forget to save us some candy

The post A Halloween How-to for the NICU appeared first on Your Health Matters.

At Sunnybrook, we issued our Kangaroo-a-thon Throw Down a few months ago, and we are  happy to report that 35 hospitals across North America have joined in!  Many of these hospitals have been promoting and supporting kangaroo care for years, and we have learned so much from their examples. We will have final results by the end of May, but we can state already that all of you who participated (especially the babies) are gold medal winners in our eyes.

We are also beyond thrilled to learn that the Miracle Babies Foundation in Australia is leading their own Kangaroo Throw Down! This organization does incredible work supporting families and health care workers in hospitals across Australia, and it seems fitting that they are such ardent champions of kangaroo care. Be sure to check out the beautiful pictures they are sharing via their Twitter account. We await the results of their throw down with great anticipation, and we will send whoever wins their throw down something exciting!

And last (but certainly not least), today we will be wrapping up the Sunnybrook Instagram #SBcuddles contest!  Thanks so much to all the families who shared their wonderful kangaroo care moments.

Happy holding, everyone!

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– – – – –

Norah Elizabeth Aoife Harrop was born at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, at 10:02pm via emergency C-section on Wednesday, May 14th, 2014. At a little over 27 weeks gestation, Norah came 13 weeks early and weighed in at 3.1lbs. We don’t know why she decided to come early, and we’ve learned that it’s pretty common not to know. Two and a half hours after the first contraction at 6:30pm, we learned that there was nothing to do to prevent delivery. An hour after that, Norah arrived. 

During her 12 week hospital stay, we wrote a daily blog to keep our families and friends updated on her progress. This seemed like a kindness to others, but it was really because we didn’t know moment to moment whether we’d be able to bear a one on one conversation about Norah’s health or future. Below is an excerpt from the blog, four weeks in. We were still completely overwhelmed by the experience, and overwhelmed by our support system. We were (and are) painfully aware that not all NICU families are as lucky as ours. 

Norah at 2 days

Today, Norah is four weeks old. The last four weeks have been the most hectic, love-filled, scary and difficult of our lives. The range of emotion is incredible – in dark moments we curse our terrible luck. When the cloud lifts, we realize that we are even luckier than we ever knew.

As sometimes stubbornly independent and polite people, we try not to ask people for anything that might inconvenience them. It is so humbling to be at a point where we will brazenly ask for whatever our friends and family might be able to provide. If we haven’t asked you yet, we will. It takes a village to support our family right now.

We have discovered that our family and friends are even more amazing than we thought. We have discovered that without asking, each of them will take it upon themselves to help lift a little weight off of us to make this time easier.

Our parents have put their lives on hold to help in any way they can. And do we ever accept. Babysitting, unpacking, making all decisions on our reno from Norah’s birthday on, taking our two year old son Eddie for overnights so that we can sleep and so much more. We all owe our parents gratitude, but this has been above and beyond.

Family from near and far have helped in so many ways. Emails, cards and texts to let us know that they’re thinking of us. Food, babysitting, personal concierge services and more. A well timed call, long term doggy boarding, and pastries at the hospital. It’s all been crucial to our survival.

Friends have acted as personal chefs, nannies, personal assistants and fetchers of frozen drinks. Sources of information – medical, developmental, updates on the outside world, and being our cheerleaders.

Co-workers have put aside their own personal lives to cover for me; I’m is still working reduced hours and left on zero notice during a very busy time. They are full of encouragement and not a word of complaint about missed emails, general lack of focus, and sometimes just not being there.

Lindsay’s coworkers have been supportive beyond belief and reason.  She didn’t have to worry about any lesson planning or test marking – the math department took over and got her supply going without her having to lift a finger.

Our extended circle stretches beyond what we could have dreamed. Notes, comments, and blog views from friends of our parents, and parents and siblings of our friends.

Above all else, we have felt so much love over the last four weeks. Thank you all for everything you’ve done, whether we captured it here or not. And whether we were functioning enough at the time to say thank you. Thank you all for your continued support. The blog alone averages over 100 page views daily. It makes us feel like we have a huge crowd behind us, holding us up when we’re too tired, discouraged or scared to do it alone.

So on Norah’s four week birthday, we thank you. We will thank you all for the rest of our lives. And we’ll continue to lean on you for a while.

All our love,

Jen, Lindsay, Eddie, Norah & Stella

Norah at nearly 6 months (3 months corrected)

The post Norah’s Story appeared first on Your Health Matters.

– – – – – – –

Take heart, preemie parent, you are not alone. I know you don’t feel like a mom or dad when your baby is in the incubator. You go home and your baby stays in the box. The plastic uterus is a poor replacement for the real thing.

You are not alone, for you’ve joined a community of parents who are fiercely proud. We endure those horrible moments, we witness great pain, and we come back to the hospital the next day to do it all again.

My son, Torran, was born without fluid. After continuous bleeding since my 6^th week of pregnancy, my water broke at 19 weeks gestation, creating a condition called oligohydramnios. I waited to see whether or not Torran would survive his birth.

Our 136 days in hospital were the most heartbreaking moments of our lives. Torran had several preemie complications, including IVH (bleeding in his brain), infection (sepsis), and holes in his heart (ASD,VSD, PDA). He struggled on a ventilator for 8 weeks. On his due date, he had brain surgery to correct hydrocephalus.

Life forced us to be patient when all we wanted to do was run home with our baby. We couldn’t remove his life support, even though we knew his life would be complicated. Torran is now a thriving six year old boy. He has a little laundry list of medical and developmental complications, but our lives are brighter because he’s alive.

I wrote Growing A Rainbow based upon our experience in the hospital. It’s a fundraising venture for the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation. The narrative of Torran’s start in life, through my eyes, raises awareness about the emotional trauma of prematurity. It is the coping tool all preemie parents need.

This is an excerpt of Growing a Rainbow, and a piece of my heart:

Torran exists between a fetal and an infant state. We’re told he can hear us. I assume that’s true if his ear bones developed properly and his brain has sound wiring. There’s certainly no way he comprehends language yet. 

Babies have an acute sense of smell. We probably reek of hand rinse. He may think his parents are alcoholics. 

I don’t know that he’s able to focus on my face properly because I’m always behind the plastic wall of the incubator, several inches away. 

All I can do is hope that somehow he knows his parents are here, and that he’s loved so very much. It is so unfair that this innocent child will spend the first months of his life enduring harshness. I have to put him through it if he is to have a chance of survival, even though it hurts me to do so. 

Everyone keeps telling us that our family is strong and inspiring. Then why do I feel like I’m losing the will to fight? 

An aura of gloom possesses me. I can’t shake it, even though the weather outside is brilliant. Not a day passes without tears. 

I’m not a person who indulges in self-pity. We don’t know how to repay everyone’s kindness, positivity and generosity. Feeling desolate seems like an offense to them, as if I’m rejecting their encouragement. 

But, I can’t run away from this. There is a reason why I’m here for so long every day. It’s more than my internal drive to stay informed about Torran’s medical progression. I’m his advocate and the attestant to his plight. 

I can’t be a “normal” mother no how much I yearn to hold Torran. Like the other families here, Bruce and I adapted to a new modality of family life for our emotional survival. 

These clinicians and therapists know more about our babies functioning than we do. It seems that way. Well-trained, proficient strangers care for our children. They don’t kiss away the big boo-boos.

Lesley and Torran. He’s still a hero, though not 2 pounds any more!

The post Growing a Rainbow appeared first on Your Health Matters.

Photo credits:  Doug Nicholson

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One year ago today at 1:37 AM, my life forever changed. I gave birth to my hero Vienna-Grace Evelyn Smith.

Weighing a total of 643 grams, born at 24 weeks and measuring 32 cm long, she was the smallest thing I have ever seen in my life and I can remember the fear and horror I felt the first time I laid eyes on her. I cried until my eyes couldn’t cry any more and I prayed until I had no more strength left to utter a single word.

I had no idea what we were in for or what to expect because up until the week before Vienna was born, I didn’t even know the NICU existed. Before that day I could have passed the NICU staff in the hall, unaware of all the amazing miracles the NICU nurses and doctors perform every day, and how many hours of hard work and dedication goes into every minute of their long and gruelling 12 hour shifts. Sometimes they’re even working through breaks and lunch and hopping around on a spot because their  tiny warrior in that little isolette is calling all the shots and needs their immediate attention and is saying, “No washroom break for you … I need to be suctioned or repositioned!”

I never thought I would actually ever say this, but I miss the NICU team! Please know that I thank God every day for you and that you do make a difference and that your work has not gone in vain. I am forever in your debt and I appreciate you all.

Who could ever have known how mighty and impressive such a tiny micro sized human could be!? Who knew that after a long 111 days spent in the NICU full of many ups, downs, twists and turns that you, my precious Vienna, would come out on top and amaze everyone each and every day even when all the odds were against us?

I am grateful for every friendship I encountered those 4 months no matter how big or how small. From fellow NICU moms and dads to NICU staff … there are so many of you and I could never thank you enough. Vienna and I were and are so blessed to have you all there on our side rooting for us every day. I never would have been able to get through it without you all.

A special shout out goes to my mom and dad for taking such amazing care of Vienna’s older brother and sister and of course myself during those 4 months we were at Sunnybrook. I am lucky to have you as my parents.

Thank you all for continuing to be a part of our journey and for all of your kind words of encouragement , and of course your shoulders to cry on and your ears for all the “vent” sessions.

I can never repay Sunnybrook for giving me my baby girl, but I promise to forever show my appreciation any way I possibly can. I cannot fully express my gratitude to you.

 To all of the current NICU parents … keep your heads up and never give up faith. I know that behind the walls of the NICU it seems that there is no light at the end of the tunnel, but hang in there, because miracles happen every day. I have living proof angels do exist.

Today I am wishing my warrior princess a very blessed and happy 1st birthday and of course many, many more to come.
Although she be but little, she is fierce!

Love,

From a proud NICU graduate mama

The post Happy birthday to a warrior princess! appeared first on Your Health Matters.

Two weeks old, being held by Dad

When Maggie turned one, we celebrated, but barely.  We were joyful for her, but the events that led to her birth still weighed heavily on us, so our feelings were bittersweet.  Each year since then the balance between bitter and sweet has shifted, and now it’s pretty much all sweet.

The first time we saw Maggie’s face (at 2 months old), and our first family picture

I have spent some time today thinking of those two scared parents who had no idea of what was coming next, and I wish I could reach back through the years and hold them and tell them that they would be okay. But mostly I think about how our life has changed in so many wonderful ways since 2005. It’s not just that we added our magical Maggie to our family (although that’s the biggest and most splendid part of it). We also met such wonderful people who transformed her life and ours.

So to those people (and you know who you are), thank you for being the best welcoming committee ever, and thank you for continuing to guide families through the confusing maze of the NICU with such compassion and skill.  To the other NICU families we have met since then … we have learned so much from you and we are so grateful to be part of this amazing community.  We include all of you – nurses, doctors, RTs, NICU families – in our celebration today because we know we couldn’t have done any of this without you.

Our birthday girl … it’s entirely possible that she’ll manage to pull the sword out!

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