Your Premature Baby: The First Five Years

by Bradford, Nikki

• ISBN13: 9781552976555
• ISBN10: 1552976556
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: FIREFLY BOOKS

Summary

Your Premature Baby is the definitive guide to every aspect of nurturing a child who is born too soon. Reassuring and frank, it is the only book that informs and guides parents right from their baby's too-early birth into the growing years. Features of this book: Exactly how prematurity affects a baby Explains hospital terms, procedures, treatments, and equipment What to expect as your baby progresses through treatment and procedures Gives advice for coping practically and emotionally Help and ideas for parents from when their baby comes home up to age 5 Discusses the latest research into the causes of prematurity and its preventions Offers a wide variety of resources for further information and support

Author Biography

Nikki Bradford is an award-winning author and medical journalist. A former health correspondent for Good Housekeeping magazine, her books includes the best-selling The Hamlyn Encyclopaedia of Complementary Health and The Miraculous World of Your Unborn Baby.

Dr. Jonathan Hellmann, MBBCh, FCP(SA), FRCP(C) is the Clinical Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. He is also Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto.

Sharyn Gibbins, RN, MSc, PhD is a Clinical Nurse Specialist/Neonatal Nurse Practitioner at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and Head of Interdisciplinary Research and Evidence-based Practice at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, Toronto.

Table of Contents

Foreword	6	(1)
Author's acknowledgments	7	(2)
About the consultants	9	(1)
How little you are	10	(12)
How being born early may affect your baby
What premature babies may look like
What they can cope with
How they may behave and why
At: 24--28 weeks; 29--34 weeks; 35--37 weeks
What happens now?	22	(60)
How the hospital can help your baby
Machines, tubes and equipment
Ordinary and more serious medical problems: symptoms, treatment and outlook
What can we do?	82	(46)
How you can help your baby
Why your baby needs you
Babywatching---understanding and interpreting your baby's signals
Caring for your baby
Comfort and contact
Massage and therapeutic touch
Kangaroo care
Feeding
You and your family	128	(16)
How you can help yourself and your family
Looking after yourself
Surviving in the NICU
Communicating with staff
Your baby's older brothers and sisters
Grieving and loss	144	(10)
Coming to terms with bereavement
Why grief is important
Grieving for a baby with a disability
When a baby dies
Time to go home	154	(20)
Managing on your own
How your baby might behave at home
Sleeping and crying
Keeping warm
If your baby is ill
Coping with feeding and breathing problems
Helping prevent SIDS
Special babies, special children	174	(19)
Bringing up your premature child
Will my baby have a problem?
Follow-up care: help and support
Growing and developing
How premature children catch up, and where there might be difficulties
Premature birth: why does it happen?	193	(9)
Reasons for prematurity and what can be done to prevent it
Research, medical studies and resources	197	(5)
Here to help	202	(3)
The medical staff and professionals involved in caring for your baby; helplines and support groups
Index	205	(3)
Publishers' acknowledgments	208