The Swedish approach to nurturing extremely preterm infants and their families: A nursing perspective

Nurturing extremely premature infants is a complicated task that not only necessitates a systematic approach to the immature physiology and its medical management, but also to the needs of the family. Infants born at 22-24 weeks require many weeks of intensive care including a long duration of mecha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Seminars in perinatology 2022-02, Vol.46 (1), p.151542-151542, Article 151542
Main Authors: Thernström Blomqvist, Ylva, Ågren, Johan, Karlsson, Victoria
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Extremely preterm infants
Family-centered care
Family-integrated care
Female
Humans
Infant
Infant, Extremely Premature
Infant, Newborn
Intensive Care Units, Neonatal
Milk, Human
Neonatal intensive care
Parenting
Parents
Skin-to-skin contact
Sweden
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Summary:Nurturing extremely premature infants is a complicated task that not only necessitates a systematic approach to the immature physiology and its medical management, but also to the needs of the family. Infants born at 22-24 weeks require many weeks of intensive care including a long duration of mechanical ventilation, numerous stressful medical interventions, and for the parents to spend a lot of time in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit (NICU). This paper aims to outline the Swedish nursing approach to nurturing these infants and their families. The nursing care is structured so the parents are the primary caregivers supported by the staff and is based on: timely expression and provision of mother's own breast milk, early and prolonged skin-to-skin contact and close collaboration with the family. While this presentation is based on a single-center's experience, it well represents the general features of nursing provided to extremely preterm infants in Swedish NICUs.
ISSN:0146-0005
1558-075X
1558-075X
DOI:10.1016/j.semperi.2021.151542