EACH SEPTEMBER WE CELEBRATE NICU AWARENESS NICU Awareness Month is designed to honor families experiencing a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the health professionals who care for the them. The National Perinatal Association, in collaboration with Project Sweet Peas, has created this toolkit to help you raise NICU Awareness. We've gathered these resources - created by an interdisciplinary team of parents and professionals - to celebrate and honor our NICU experiences. Join us in these observances:
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| Visit Project Sweet Peas' website. Project Sweet Peas created Neonatal Awareness Month to honor families experiencing a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the health professionals who care for the them. |
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When a Baby Needs Specialized Care
Pregnancy is a time filled with hope and expectation. Every family hopes for an uncomplicated birth and a healthy baby. But sometimes the unexpected happens. Every year more than half a million babies are admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, otherwise known as a NICU. |
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Did You Know? It's not just preemies.
- Advances in neonatal medicine mean that more infants can benefit from the specialized care that NICUs can offer.
- Nearly half of all babies in the NICU are born at normal-birth-weight and are 37 weeks gestation or older.
- We need to do more research and collect more data. While the efficacy of NICU care for premature babies is undeniable, we don’t know if this is true for the entire NICU cohort.
NICUs Exemplify Interdisciplinary Collaboration Caring for infants isn't like caring for other patients; babies aren't tiny adults. Neonatology is a highly specialized field. Providing specialized care for neonates requires expertise and teamwork. When a baby is in the NICU they will be cared for by a team of professionals that includes, but is not limited to: |
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Conditions that NICUs Treat: Babies receive care for both prenatally-diagnosed conditions and emergent health issues, including:
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Print and Share these Fact Sheets. |
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NICU Staff Recognition September 28th
Every day hospital professionals in the NICU commit themselves to providing exceptional care to the tiniest of patients and their families. September 28th is a day to honor NICU staff members.
Download 5 Ways to Give Back to Your NICU
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NICU Remembrance Day On September 26th we honor the parents of babies whose lives were too brief Every year thousands of families must say goodbye to their baby in the emergency room, Labor & Deliver, or the NICU. On this special day we are honoring the lives of these little ones and the families that love them.
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Sibling Support Day September 29th is a day to honor all NICU siblings. We recognize that a NICU stay not only impacts parents, but their children at home as well. Siblings need support, love, and encouragement to help them through this journey. We've created this coloring page for siblings that you can download, print, and share.
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