FAAB & Bookbug

Family Integrated Care in the neonatal unit is a new model of care which aims to support you as parents to become heavily involved in the care of your baby/babies and be partners with the team of nursing and medical staff caring for your baby.  We want you as parents to feel included and valued as you are the most important people in the care of your baby.  We want to work together with you to make the right decisions for you and your baby.  Benefits of Family Integrated Care include an improved rate of weight gain, reduced parental and infant stress, and shorter length of stay.

Within the unit we have a FABB (Family and Baby Bonding) Group that is constantly looking at new ways to improve Family Integrated Care in our unit. So far we have introduced the following:

Family Sessions

There are posters around the unit showing timetables for our afternoon family sessions which occur from 1-2pm in the neonatal seminar room. The aim of these sessions is to provide you with a variety of knowledge and skills to help you to be more involved in your baby’s care.

We have sessions led by midwives, nursing assistants, breast feeding support staff, pharmacists, dieticians, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and we hope to add many more. We offer regular sessions regarding the importance of breast milk, baby massage and resuscitation. 

If you have ideas of sessions that you would like us to offer then please tell us and we will do our best to organise this.

Sessions are very informal and all parents and family members are welcome. Feel free to bring a tea or coffee from the parents pantry and we will provide the cakes! The sessions are a lovely way for parents to meet and share their stories and support each other.

Baby Library

We have numerous books available for you to borrow to read to your baby. We know that the time you spend at your baby’s bedside really does make a crucial difference to your baby’s experience and their long term development. Reading to your baby also helps them to relax and bond with you.

Bookbug

We have Bookbug sessions every second Friday in SCBU.

These are sessions where a volunteer comes to sing and tell stories to the babies. The session runs from 1-1:30pm. We would encourage you to come and join in these sessions with your baby when he/she is in SCBU and able to participate.

From 1:30-2pm the Bookbug volunteer comes to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to chat with parents whose babies are not ready to participate in sessions about the benefits of reading and singing to your baby.