Care and Support
Care and Support Overview
We can imagine that you never expected that your baby would need to be cared for in the Neonatal Unit. Seeing your baby in the neonatal unit for the first time can be scary and overwhelming. You may find yourself not being able to process anything and you may feel that you can’t take it all in. The noise of the alarms, the wires surrounding your baby, the lights, the equipment and monitors can all feel too much to deal with. It can be a shock for you to see your baby in this environment. There is so much to take in.
It is natural to feel this way until you begin to understand and get used to your new baby. Parents have said that it has taken them a week or longer before they can even begin to grasp what is happening.
We have written this section with suggestions and tools to help you cope during this time. Many parents who have experienced what you may be going through now, have said that taking each day one at a time, living in the ‘here and now’ has helped them especially if their baby has been born very preterm.
Parents often ask “what did I do wrong?” You did nothing wrong. It is not your fault. There is nothing that you did or didn’t do that caused your baby to need to come to the neonatal unit.
