Recently, I had an argument with my charged nurse about covering my baby inside the incubator. My baby (patient) is 1.1 kg, premie, with nasal cannula and continuous feeding thru oral gastric tube. Though, he is so small, he is very active and can be easily startled by sounds. So I put a blanket over him and he slept peacefully. My charged nurse told me to remove the blanket and I told her the situation plus I am handling another baby. She said, I couldn’t check my baby’s respiration, heart rate and color if I cover my baby. Instead of removing, I stood firm with my decision and I told her that my consultant was already aware of putting blanket for this baby. But she shouted frantically in my face and what disgusted me more was she let me choose who I will follow: her (my charge nurse) or my consultant. Well, I just held my composure and smiled. That even made her angrier J Thank God for giving us two ears, one for receiving good information and one for ejecting the bad ones. She didn’t even give me any alternative to appease my baby, with all the credentials she is boasting. To make the story short, the following day, my consultant affirmed that blankets can be used for small babies for providing comfort.
After this incident, I took time searching the net to support this idea. I found a lot of non-profit organization in the US that helped NICU babies and their families lessen the stress that the hospital provides.
· Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. The Blankets for Babies program provides blankets and quilts for babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). They are used by our NICU babies and taken home as one of their first keepsakes. The quilts and blankets are made by the creative and generous efforts of our community volunteers. They are even part of the President's Volunteer Service Award Program.
· The University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. The Preemie Project is a non-profit organization that comforts premature and critically ill infants and their families by giving gifts of hats, booties and blankets that have been handcrafted by a devoted group of local and national volunteers. In addition, The Preemie Project offers solace to families who are grieving a loss by providing bereavement items such as handcrafted burial layettes and tokens of remembrance. The Preemie Project uses financial contributions to supply UI Children’s Hospital families in financial crisis with basic necessities such as diapers, toiletries and clothing.
http://www.thepreemieproject.com/
· Montefiore Medical Center, New York. The Covered with Love Program was developed by the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurses to provide comfort and hope for the critically-ill babies during their care. These blankets provide a touch of home and color for the critically-ill babies. This project comes from the heart and helps the whole family.
http://www.montefiore.org/whoweare/stories/covered-with-love/
Lesson learned: stand on what you believe is right. It doesn’t signify that you will always follow what is being told. Most of those who became successful took risk. Now, my baby is 1.4kg, still very active, on continuous feeding and sleeping comfortably with his blanket. I couldn’t put his picture because of confidentiality but I’m glad I took a stand for him.
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