What you Need to Know About Premature Infant Care
Premature infant care is incredibly important to learn about, as premature babies are usually incredibly unhealthy and so understanding about how to properly take care of them is essential if your own baby was premature. Even if you have not given birth yet, it would still be intelligent for you to learn about premature infant care, so that just in case your baby is born early, you will already be prepared and at least know the basics.
Premature Infant Care
Any infant who is born before 37 weeks of gestational age is considered as being premature, and although survival is often an issue with premature babies, the rate of survival has actually increased significantly over time, particularly in the past few years. Your infant will be looked after in the hospital until they are considered healthy enough to be taken home, and this is when the care is put on your shoulders.
One of the biggest issues in premature infant care involves traveling, and it is important that as a parent you always use a car seat when you are traveling with your infant, and the infant’s head and body should never slouch, and as well you should never have any straps placed around their head or abdomen. You should never place your infant in the front seat of a vehicle, especially if an airbag on the passenger side could be activated, because if it did, this would seriously harm, if not kill your baby.
Another premature infant care issue is one which deals with sleep. Premature babies tend to sleep much more than a full-term infant, and so you need to make sure that they are getting enough rest on a daily basis. As well, and unfortunately for new parents, premature babies also tend to wake up a lot more than other babies, and so you should expect yourself to be getting up much more often.
The premature infant will most likely take several days or weeks in order to be able to make the transition from the drastically different environment of the hospital to the darker and quieter environment of your home, and so you need to consider that they will have to take a bit of time in order to adjust.
You also want to make sure that when they are sleeping they are on their back, because it is now a well-established fact that the prone position is associated with an increased risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). You should always check in on your baby while they are sleeping, not only to make sure that they have not rolled over onto their side or tummy, but also to make sure that they are still breathing, as SIDS comes out of nowhere and for no known reason, and so you really need to watch out for this.
Premature Infant Care
Any infant who is born before 37 weeks of gestational age is considered as being premature, and although survival is often an issue with premature babies, the rate of survival has actually increased significantly over time, particularly in the past few years. Your infant will be looked after in the hospital until they are considered healthy enough to be taken home, and this is when the care is put on your shoulders.
One of the biggest issues in premature infant care involves traveling, and it is important that as a parent you always use a car seat when you are traveling with your infant, and the infant’s head and body should never slouch, and as well you should never have any straps placed around their head or abdomen. You should never place your infant in the front seat of a vehicle, especially if an airbag on the passenger side could be activated, because if it did, this would seriously harm, if not kill your baby.
Another premature infant care issue is one which deals with sleep. Premature babies tend to sleep much more than a full-term infant, and so you need to make sure that they are getting enough rest on a daily basis. As well, and unfortunately for new parents, premature babies also tend to wake up a lot more than other babies, and so you should expect yourself to be getting up much more often.
The premature infant will most likely take several days or weeks in order to be able to make the transition from the drastically different environment of the hospital to the darker and quieter environment of your home, and so you need to consider that they will have to take a bit of time in order to adjust.
You also want to make sure that when they are sleeping they are on their back, because it is now a well-established fact that the prone position is associated with an increased risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). You should always check in on your baby while they are sleeping, not only to make sure that they have not rolled over onto their side or tummy, but also to make sure that they are still breathing, as SIDS comes out of nowhere and for no known reason, and so you really need to watch out for this.
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