Support for
Families of
NICU Babies
Caring for you and your NICU baby
Having your baby admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) is not how many of us would expect to start our parenting journeys. Whether your baby is born prematurely, or at term, whether they spend a day in neonatal care, or many weeks, or months, it’s a tough start for everyone.
I’ve been there, and I know how hard it can be.
As a postnatal doula and a fellow NICU parent, I am here to care for you, your baby, and your wider family with emotional and practical support alongside compassion, empathy and understanding, as you navigate your NICU journey. Drawing on my own experiences and from specialised postnatal doula training for NICU families, I can offer support while your baby is in hospital and also once they have been discharged, as you transition to life at home.
I am based in Berkhamsted and Tring and cover the surrounding areas in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and North London. I can also offer virtual support over Zoom.
My NICU Journey
Following a complicated pregnancy, our youngest daughter, Lola was born prematurely at 30 weeks. My waters broke prematurely (PPROM) and Lola arrived in dramatic fashion a few days later via an emergency c-section, under general anaesthetic.
She was whisked away to NICU, and I didn’t meet her until the following morning. She looked so tiny in her incubator, covered in tubes and wires – I don’t think anything can prepare you for meeting your baby this way. I was discharged a few days later and so began our new routine of visiting our Lola in hospital, expressing around the clock, and getting to grips with the beeping machines and medical terminology. All while also caring for Lola’s 16-month-old sister, Eva, and trying to recover myself. It was utterly exhausting and a rollercoaster of challenges and emotions.
Lola spent the first two months of her life in hospital, including her first Christmas, before we were finally able to bring her home, just before her due date. We were so happy to finally have her home! But I hadn’t anticipated how challenging the transition to life at home would be and its only looking back now that I realise just how hard it was and how wholly un-prepared we were. I wish we had asked for help!
And that is my greatest motivation for wanting to support you – to be able to offer the empowerment, the reassurance, and the support that I now realise was missing for me.
How I Can Support You
-
Offer you practical support - meals, housework, lifts etc.
-
Support your emotional and mental health and help you find further support if it’s needed
-
Offer you time and space to listen to your birth story
-
Sit with your baby while you take time to do whatever it is you need to do to rest and recover
-
Help familiarise you with NICU terminology and support you in your communications with hospital staff
-
Offer a listening ear to discuss any anxieties and work with you to ease these
-
Offer you and your family continued support once your baby has been discharged
-
Help you find confidence in being involved with your baby’s cares and in finding ways to bond with your baby
-
Help you find ways to manage your own self-care, whilst maximising the time with your baby
-
Accompany you on appointments or to procedures for moral support and reassurance
-
Help you prepare for bringing your baby home from hospital
-
Share peer-based and evidence-based resources and support
-
Support your feeding choices - breastfeeding, formula feeding, bottle or expressing
-
Support other family members with their own emotional and practical needs
