Episode 32: NICU Awareness: The Unique Challenges and Support Needed for NICU Babies and Parents

No One Told Us

Rachael Shepard-Ohta

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, Parenting

4.9 • 590 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Episode 32: NICU Awareness: The Unique Challenges and Support Needed for NICU Babies and Parents This week, we have our first TWO guest episode! Rachael has TWO amazing guests on to discuss all about the NICU. They offer unique perspectives from both professional and personal experiences. First, Rachael starts with Dr. Frankie Harrison. Dr.Frankie, a clinical psychologist and mom who had a premature baby, discusses the challenges and emotions associated with the NICU journey. She emphasizes the importance of raising awareness for the NICU and providing support for parents who have been through neonatal care. Dr. Frankie also highlights the high rates of mood disorders and PTSD among parents who have experienced the NICU and the lack of support available. She provides tips for self-care and coping with the challenges of taking a baby home from the NICU. Additionally, she discusses the common issues with sleep and feeding that NICU babies may face and emphasizes the importance of focusing on the parent-baby connection. Our second guest, Abby Boursiquot, an SLP/CLC/feeding specialist, shares her personal experience and professional expertise on breastfeeding and feeding challenges in the NICU. She discusses how parents can encourage breastfeeding while in the NICU, including the importance of skin-to-skin contact and practicing latching. Abby also addresses the challenges parents may face when taking their baby home from the NICU, such as triple feeding and adjusting to a new feeding routine. She emphasizes the need for parents to prioritize their mental health during this time and seek therapy if needed. Abby offers insights on how friends and family can support NICU parents and highlights the importance of self-care. Lastly, she discusses the unique experience of time in the NICU and the uncertainty parents may face. Dr Frankie Harrison is a clinical Psychologist based in the UK, and also a Mum who had a premature baby at 31 weeks. Her baby needed neonatal support when they were born and she struggled with the impact this had on her once home. She looked around, asked her doctor and found that there was limited support available for NICU parents. So she set up @miraclemoonuk on instagram and facebook, a supportive community for parents who have been through neonatal care and birth trauma. Abby is an SLP/CLC/feeding specialist and has worked in special care nurseries and NICU settings in Chicago and DC areas. She is now an infant feeding specialist, specifically for medically complex infants, managing the issues that can occur with prematurity and breast/bottle feeding efficiency issues including tongue ties. Personally, her 2.5 year old son was born at 35 weeks and was in the NICU for 3 weeks. She felt it was such a transformative experience especially as a first time mom, but also seeing the NICU from a personal lens after working there before. This experience further informed her perspective on the NICU and how we can improve the experience for postpartum parents. Mentioned in this episode: Dr. Frankie’s website Dr. Frankie’s Instagram @miraclemoonuk Abby’s Instagram @ourvillageslp Abby’s website Rachael is a mom of 3, founder of Hey, Sleepy Baby, and the host of this podcast. Instagram (Show page) Tiktok (Rachael's tiktok account) Show Website (check out our sponsors, episode details and transcripts available here) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to No One Told Us, the podcast that tells the truth about parenting and all of the stuff that you wish you knew before having kids.
0:10.4	I'm your host, Rachel Shepardot, and today is a really special episode.
0:13.8	We're going to be talking all about the NICU, which is a very sensitive topic, but so important to talk about and to kind of reach out
0:21.8	and help people feel less alone. I know it can be really scary. So first up today, we're
0:26.5	speaking with Dr. Frankie Harrison, who's a clinical psychologist based in the UK and also a mom
0:31.8	who had a premature baby, a 31 weeker. Dr. Frankie set up the Instagram platform Miracle Moon UK on Instagram and Facebook,
0:39.8	which is a supportive community for parents who have been through neonatal care and birth trauma.
0:44.0	She provides free psychological information for these platforms to encourage parents to connect
0:49.1	with each other and to reflect on their experience to help normalize and validate the emotions
0:53.3	that can go with the
0:54.7	NICU journey. Dr. Frankie also works to raise awareness for the NICU as it is so often not spoken
1:01.1	about and provides online one-to-one therapy, couples support and runs her own podcast and workshops,
1:06.3	plus lots of other resources. Dr. Frankie, you do so much for this community. Thank you so much for being here.
1:12.2	Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Like you said, it just, it doesn't really get spoken
1:16.6	about so much. So I always kind of do a little leap with excitement whenever anyone asks to talk about it.
1:22.9	It's so wonderful. And I think one of the big misconceptions is that the NICU is only for babies who are
1:28.2	really premature when the reality is that a full-term baby could need the NICU or it's something
1:34.5	that you have to be in for weeks and weeks on end. And it's always this super, super traumatic,
1:40.0	horrible experience. So yeah, I'm excited to dive into today's episode. But what I'd love to hear first
1:45.4	is just kind of your story and how you came to this work and your experience with your own
1:51.3	child. Yeah, absolutely. So my first pregnancy was a bit of an up and down pregnancy all over the place. It was obviously my first experience
2:04.4	of being pregnant, so I didn't really know what to expect. But it kind of ended sooner than I
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