It is often the case that when you attend a Special or Neonatal Intensive Care Baby Unit, that you will hear many different words in relation to your baby or their health. Below, we have compiled some of the most common terms and a definition to help you better understand what is meant.
A: A Special Care Baby is a baby who is born requiring some level of specialist care and/or attention. This could be anything from needing to spend some time in an incubator to warm them up and help them keep a consistent body temperature, right through to needing intensive treatment or care. Many people use the term Special Care Baby even when the baby is admitted to one of the other, more intensive units.
A: Neonatal means a baby who is in a period of time after birth from 48 hours, to one month. The baby would be termed as a neonate. Post-neonatal means anything after the first month of life.
A: There are 4 main levels of care that your newborn baby can potentially receive. If everything is ok when they are born and their health and weight are normal, then they will spend anything from a few hours, to 5 days in the post-natal or maternity ward.
If there are minor complications such as temperature problems, minor breathing problems or other less serious complications, then they may spend time in a Special Care Unit.
If the compliations are more serious or they need some very specialist treatment, or are very underweight at birth, they may spend time in the High Dependency Unit.
The highest level of care that your baby can receive is in the Neonatal Intensive/Critical Care Unit. This is when there are serious health issues for your baby and they need round the clock monitoring and may be considered to need some form of surgery. Intensive Care for babies is the same level of care as for adults. It is for those babies who would be classed as being critically ill and where they will receive one to one attention. It is very traumatic when a baby needs to spend time in any of these units, but the staff are expertly trained and know exactly what they are doing. Your baby could not be in better hands than with the fantastic staff on any of these units. The staff there will answer any of your questions and are on hand round the clock to make sure that your baby receives the best possible care.
A: CPAP means Continuous Positive Air Pressure. If your baby requires this, it is likely to be in one of the above units. In premature babies, CPAP is delivered through a set of nasal prongs or through a small mask that fits snugly over a baby’s nose. CPAP is used to deliver constant air pressure into a baby’s nose, which helps the air sacs in the lungs stay open and helps prevent apnea (when the baby literally forgets to breath on their own for a short spell). CPAP can deliver more pressure than nasal cannula, so is often used in babies who are breathing well enough on their own that they do not need mechanical ventilation, but who need more support than the cannula offers. CPAP can also be used to deliver higher concentrations of oxygen to premature babies who have trouble maintaining good oxygen levels in their blood.
A: RSV is Respiratory Syncytial Virus.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is one of the most important causes of lower respiratory illness in infants and young children. It also causes both mild and serious respiratory diseases in older children and adults.
A person with a first RSV infection can develop severe breathing problems that need to be managed in the hospital. RSV infections in premature babies less than 6 months old and in infants with chronic lung, heart, or immune problems are most likely to be severe and can lead to death and this is the reason that your baby requires specialist medical attention in hospital.
Most people with mild RSV infections usually get better without treatment. Care of patients with mild illness centres on relieving symptoms and easing breathing. Those with more serious infections are sometimes treated in the hospital with anti-virus drugs. Some hospitalised patients need intensive care and mechanical ventilation (respirator).
A: It is always important to keep in constant communication with the people primarily taking care of your baby. This can be the Nurses, Consultants, Doctors or your own Health Visitor. These are the people who will know exactly what is being done to help your baby.
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