NICU Babies Parent Support

In this episode, we talk with licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and NICU parent, Kara Whalin, about risk factors and warning signs of postpartum depression, anxiety and PTSD during and after a NICU stay.

In This Episode:

• Kelli’s overwhelming emotions upon meeting her micropreemie son Jackson for the first time.
• What is anticipatory grief and what does it mean for NICU parents?
• What emotions can parents expect when faced with a NICU experience/meeting their baby for the first time?
• The different ways in which grief and shame manifest themselves in NICU parents.
• How moms and dads process guilt/grief differently.

This episode is sponsored by Prolacta Bioscience.

In this episode:

• How parents can avoid letting stress and anxiety take over and find their footing in the NICU.
• Advice for empowering yourself as a parent and becoming your baby’s advocate.
• How to embrace your feelings of guilt and inadequacy, for they are normal, but to let go of the expectations you one had for your pregnancy/baby.
• Guilt about fears of caring for a disabled child.

This episode is sponsored by Prolacta Bioscience.

Joining us to talk about finding your footing as parents in the Zero Zone is Kelley Benham French. Kelley is a professor of practice in journalism at Indiana University. A former reporter and editor for the Tampa Bay Times, she was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for “Never Let Go,” a series about her Daughter Juniper’s early birth at 23 weeks and six days. She is the co-author along with her husband of the book, Juniper, The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon, that chronicles their challenges with infertility, and the fear, sadness, exhaustion and joy of their daughter’s 196 day NICU journey.

Across the country, NICUs are now encouraging parents to read to their babies as it serves as an important first step in bonding -- especially when parents are unable to hold their baby in the first days and weeks of life. In this episode, we discuss the research behind reading to our medically fragile children and its tremendous benefits not only for the baby, but the parent.