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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – AUSTIN, TEXAS — JUNE 22, 2018 — A new podcast from Hand to Hold launches today and features eight episodes with in-depth conversations about mental health challenges facing parents of premature and medically fragile infants and those who care for them. Now available on iTunes and at www.handtohold.org, NICU Heroes uses in-depth discussions with doctors, therapists and families to teach professionals how to recognize post-partum depression, PTSD and anxiety; foster infant-child bonding; and prevent stress and burnout in neonatal professionals. Each episode provides one hour of continuing education.
Hosted by Kelli Kelley, founder of Hand to Hold and a parent of two premature infants, NICU Heroes brings together voices of medical professionals, social workers, bereaved parents and others who understand the importance of psychosocial support for NICU families. Kelley launches the series’ first episode and speaks about her own NICU experience when her son, Jackson, was born at 24 weeks, including anticipatory grief, PTSD and her struggle with insecure infant-mother attachment.
“The mental health of families is as important as the physical health of babies,” explains Kelli Kelley, founder of Hand to Hold. “We want to support all the unsung heroes of neonatal intensive care with a series of conversations designed especially for them.”
“Family-centered care is proven to help both babies and their parents,” Kelley adds. “NICU Heroes puts all the expertise and experience of leaders in this area in one convenient resource for NICU nurses and healthcare professionals.”
NICU Heroes guests and topics include:
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Dr. Lorraine Dickey of The Narrative Initiative on communication barriers between NICU staff and patient families and how best to communicate with parents in the NICU including subtle cues such as tone of voice and body language;
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Dr. Sue Hall, a leader in developing recommendations for psychosocial support of NICU Parents for National Perinatal Association, on why the mental health of families is just as important as the physical health of babies and how psychosocial issues affect parents’ bonding with their infants;
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Therapists Jasmine LeCoursiere and Kara Wahlin about the importance of the child/parent bond and the value of practices such as comfort touch, kangaroo care and eye contact, and the benefits of parents being integrated into their baby’s care in the NICU;
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Natalie Baerwaldt who discusses modeling motherhood and showing compassion to drug-addicted mothers with sensitive caregiving and compassionate intervention;
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Adam Busby of the TV series Outdaughtered, who discusses his own depression, anxiety, and PTSD after birth of quintuplets;
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Darlene Barkman of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and founder of its Family Consultant program, on how the role of a family consultant can effect long term change in a hospital setting;
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Parent Keira Sorrells, who shares her NICU experience after delivering triplets and how that led to her starting Preemie Parent Alliance; and
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NICU nurses Rhonda Reed and Jennifer Miller on the signs and symptoms of burnout, how technology has changed the stress level of the bedside nurse, and strategies for alleviating burnout symptoms.
“Everything I searched for pointed right to depression and that scared me,” Adam Busby tells Kelli Kelley in episode 7. “Post-partum depression, I’d never heard of a guy having that….I didn’t understand it. And when you don’t understand something, you want to distance yourself from it.”
Eight episodes of NICU Heroes are now available at HandtoHold.org and iTunes and coming soon to Stitcher and Spotify:
NICU Heroes is sponsored in part by Huggies and produced by Hand to Hold, which is solely responsible for its content.
About Hand to Hold
Hand to Hold is a national nonprofit that helps families before, during, and after NICU stays and infant loss by providing powerful resources for the whole family, and most importantly, one-on-one mentoring from someone who has been there. Hand to Hold resources include in-hospital programs, articles and blogs, social networks, and trained peer mentors. All were designed with the emotional, physical, and social needs of the whole NICU family. Hand to Hold was the 2012 recipient of the Becky Hatfield Family Support Award, given by the National Perinatal Association. In 2015, Hand to Hold was ranked as one of the top 10 resources for NICU parents by About.com. All services are offered without charge. For more information, visit www.handtohold.org.
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