When your baby is admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Our neonatal team provide high quality care and support to babies and families. However, we recognise that the most important members of the care team are parents. We want to help you gain the confidence and skills that are needed to help you take care of your baby while they are admitted to Dolphin ward. These skills will also help you once your baby is able to leave intensive care to move to a ward or your local hospital and ultimately home.

Family-centred care and family integrated care are our guiding principles. This means that you are actively encouraged to take part in your baby’s care and are consulted over any decisions that are made concerning your baby’s medical or developmental needs.

Every baby is admitted as part of a family, who play a vital role in supporting their baby’s time in the neonatal unit. It can be a stressful time for you, and it is important that you feel welcome, included and empowered to take an active part in your baby’s care and development. This can have tremendous benefits for your baby, who will feel more secure, nurtured, and loved, helping them to heal, grow and develop. Being involved in your baby’s care will also help you understand what is happening and hopefully make the experience less traumatic.

Your baby may be sedated, but they can still hear and recognise familiar voices and sounds. We encourage you to read and talk to your baby. You could also quietly play your favourite music or your recorded voice. If your baby has a favourite toy or comforter, you can place it close to them.

Your baby may need help with their breathing. If so, a piece of equipment called an endotracheal tube will be passed up their nose or via their mouth, into their airway. They will be sedated so it will not hurt. Once it is in place, the tube will be connected to a ventilator. This will stay in place until your baby can breathe without it.

One of our most important concerns is that no baby should be in pain. We therefore give all our babies regular sedation and pain relief as required to make sure they are comfortable.

Staff will inform you about any procedures they carry out on your baby. It may not always be possible to do this before the procedure takes place, however staff will always explain to you what they are doing and why.

By agreeing to admission to the unit, it is understood that you consent to the routine intensive care procedures that are in the best interests of your baby and their treatment. If you do not agree with this, you must inform your baby’s consultant or the nurse in charge as soon as possible.

The medical care of your baby will be led by senior doctors called consultants. If you would like to speak to one of the consultants, please let the nurse looking after your baby know.

The nursing team includes a matron, sisters and charge nurses, senior staff nurses, staff nurses, health care assistants, and students at various points in their nurse training.

Babies are usually nursed on a one-to-one basis by a qualified nurse. In certain instances, they may be cared for by a student, but they will always be overseen by a qualified nurse. There may come a time when your baby requires high dependency treatment rather than intensive care- the nurse looking after your baby may then also be looking after another baby as well.

The multidisciplinary team based on the unit and involved in your baby’s care include physiotherapists, a pharmacist, dietitian, and housekeeper. Other specialist teams may also help treat and advise on your baby’s care. The intensive care areas are also helped by a team of volunteers who support staff and families.

If you have any worries or concerns, please speak with your baby’s bedside nurse or the nurse in charge as soon as possible.

Families on NICU are also offered support by the psychosocial team. This team includes family liaison nurses, psychologists, social workers, a play specialist and chaplains. This team will try and help you with any practical or emotional difficulties that occur while your baby is an inpatient. You can ask your baby’s nurse to arrange a meeting with any member of the psychosocial team.

We have an open visiting policy for parents meaning you can see your baby at any time. However, parents and visitors must leave Dolphin ward when emergency procedures are being carried out.

Other visitors are welcome to visit after the morning ward round until 8pm. However, we ask that:

• You are present when visitors arrive to see your baby.
• There is a maximum of three visitors at any one time (including parents). Other visitors will be asked to wait outside the ward.
• Your baby’s brothers and sisters are welcome to visit but they should always be supervised by a responsible adult. No other children under 16 years old are allowed to visit.
• After 8pm, parents should be the only visitors.

You should not visit the ward if you have an infection. If in doubt, please speak to your bedside nurse or the nurse in charge.

On Dolphin ward we have a daily quiet time between 2pm to 4pm. During this time, we try to keep the noise to a minimum, turn the lights off and avoid any procedures and interventions when possible. This is important to promote your baby’s rest and recovery. During quiet time we encourage parents to remain, but we ask other visitors to leave.

You are welcome to telephone Dolphin ward. Your baby’s bedside nurse can provide the number of the phone next to your baby’s bedspace.

GOSH offers accommodation for both parents (or two adults) when a baby is in intensive care.

Unfortunately, parents cannot sleep by the bedspace on intensive care, so you will be provided accommodation in a family accommodation room near the hospital.

All accommodation is self-catering, but there are lots of cafes and shops in the local area. Bed linen and towels are provided free of charge in all rooms. If you’d like fresh linen or towels, please put them outside the room in the morning.

We advise that other children are left with relatives or friends at home. If this is not an option, then there is limited family accommodation subject to availability.

Due to the limited amount of accommodation available, when your baby recovers enough to be transferred to another ward at GOSH, only one parent can be accommodated.

To call your baby’s nurse you may use the direct telephone lines to Dolphin ward (details at the end of this leaflet) or the phone next to your baby’s bedspace. Nurses cannot give information about a patient to anyone except their parents.

Please keep mobile phones on silent and take any calls outside the unit. Only take photographs of your baby. Please do not make recordings of staff, discussions or meetings without obtaining consent first.

Parking permits and congestion charge reimbursement forms are available for families in intensive care. You can ask for a parking permit at the hospital main reception and you can obtain a congestion charge form from the administrator at the Dolphin ward reception desk.

• The Lagoon restaurant is located on the ground floor (Level 2).
• Our parents’ lounge is located just outside Dolphin ward and is shared with Seahorse ward. Please be considerate and keep visitors to a minimum. There is a fridge, microwave and facilities to make hot drinks in this lounge.
• Lockers are available outside the parents’ lounge, they require a £1 coin.
• There is a cold-water drinking fountain on Dolphin ward and in the parents’ lounge .

Please do not take hot drinks or any food on to Dolphin ward.

You are welcome to bring in blankets and a small toy for your baby, but please label them clearly.

We have a children’s book library on the ward- please help yourself and feel free to read them to your baby.

On Wednesdays we have a trained volunteer who offers parent massages.

On Thursdays, our music therapist from Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice offers music therapy for babies.

Please speak with the family liaison team if you would like to take part in these activities.

Every Friday at 11am the family liaison team run a coffee morning in the parents’ lounge. Please come along for cakes, coffee, hot chocolate and tea.

If you are a newly delivered mother, you can visit once you have been discharged from the maternity hospital. There is no maternity cover for adults at GOSH, but you can be seen for postnatal checks in the midwifery clinic on Tuesdays and Fridays at GOSH.

If you are breastfeeding, we can give you food vouchers to use in the hospital restaurant. Please ask your baby’s bedside nurse or the family liaison nurses about these.

You are welcome to express breast milk in our expressing room or by the bedside with expressing pumps provided. You will need to bring your own breast pump to use in your hospital accommodation. We have a neonatal nurse advisor available during the week who can offer support and advice for expressing and breastfeeding mothers.

NICU: 020 7829 8812

There is a phone in each bedspace- please ask your baby’s bedside nurse for the extension number so you can speak directly to the nurse looking after your baby.

Our family liaison nurses can offer support and advice. To get in touch you can:

· Ask to speak with the family liaison nurses on the ward

· Call 020 7405 9200 Ext 6347

· Or email PICU-NICU.FLN@gosh.nhs.uk