Lack of parental facilities at neonatal units

A report from the charity Bliss, has highlighted the worrying lack of parent facilities and accommodation for neonatal intensive care units.  It is already widely known that babies in neonatal care benefit from having their parents highly involved, for example, from skin-to-skin contact or breastfeeding, many hospitals are unable to provide adequate facilities and accommodation for families.

The biggest concern in the report was overnight accommodation.  Only 5 out of the 29 neonatal intensive care units surveyed had enough accommodation to fall in line with national standards. There was also a huge variation across England noted, with 40% of units having no or very limited kitchen facilities, and only one in five having enough accommodation for parents of critically ill babies.

Gail Johnson, from the RCM, stated that “This is a welcome report and one that is relevant to midwives and other maternity service staff. The RCM would stress that it is important that maternity and neonatal services offer joined-up care for parents, as their baby moves between the two services”.

She added “This is a worrying time for parents with many issues to face, as this report outlines, and it is vital that they get the information, help, support and advice they need. Key to this is good communication between maternity services, neonatal services and the parents. Midwives have a very important role in supporting parents whose baby is admitted to neonatal care, keeping them informed about the process and what is happening to their baby”.

For more on this story see RCM article here