We have seen that there are a number of perinatal risk factors that occur at the time of giving birth and are determinants for the proper development of the newborn baby. Today we will talk about one of those factors that is often not considered as such, but that has a great weight in the evolution of the baby.
When you have just become a mother or father, what you most want is for the child to get healthy and take him home as soon as possible. But sometimes this is not the case, since the baby has to enter the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (U.C.I.N.).
The U.C.I.N. It is a special care room for those newborns who require some type of specialized care. Infrastructures are special and staff are highly qualified, but it is necessary to stop to think how the environment of the U.C.I.N. in the baby.
It has been shown that the environment of this specialized unit, which is very different from what the baby had in the womb (levels of light, sounds ...), has an influence on the future development of babies.
For example, the U.C.I.N. It has very different noise levels than the child was used to feeling, and the presence of bright fluorescent light, without variations day and night, as well as the people who are present in the room also influence.
On the other hand, newborns are manipulated (with great care and dedication, everything has to be said) a lot of times throughout daily routines. However, these contacts with the baby are not evenly distributed throughout the day and night, being carried out by health personnel instead of by the parents themselves.
This high frequency of management of newborns in the U.C.I.N means that they are allowed little time for uninterrupted sleep. This is very important since the fetus between 29 and 32 weeks of age sleeps approximately 80% of the time, being most of it in REM sleep.
This uninterrupted sleep is very important for proper brain maturation, so it is suggested that children who are in the U.C.I.N. They may experience a shortage of sleep that may affect them, to a greater or lesser extent, in their cognitive development.
To these factors we must add the large amount of technological equipment that is required for the care of these children, which create an environment quite different from that place, more or less dark and quiet, in which they were in the womb.
That is, although the baby is constantly being stimulated (visually, auditory and tactile), in my view, the U.C.I.N. It seems to be a little social and unfriendly environment for newborns.
Luckily, there is currently a widespread and widespread tendency to allow parents to stay longer and longer in these units. This translates into an improvement in the care of children at risk, in which not only the medical aspects, but also the cognitive, communicative, physical and social aspects so important for the development of the baby are involved.
So, we see that The environment of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit influences the baby in a very important way, since having to spend some time here, it is necessary that the stimulation they receive be as favorable as possible, by their health care providers and, obviously, by their parents.
Photo | Yager-Madden on Flickr
In Babies and more | A study approaches the experiences of parents of neonatal ICUs, Humanize the care of premature babies.
