Individualized developmental care in the newborn intensive care unit.
With recent advances on newborn intensive care, the survival rate of very low birth weight preterm infants has been improved. The consequently new morbidities such as learning disabilities, behavioral problems, lower mean IQ and motor clumsiness have become more frequent. Neonatal individualized developmental care seeks to read the behavior of premature infants, and pace our procedures and caregiving according to individual infant's cues. Studies have shown that with implementation of developmental care, the time spent on ventilator and hospitalization was decreased, and infants started oral feeding earlier. The short and long-term neurobehavioral outcomes were improved. Developmental care focuses not only on changing the environment to provide a calming and soothing environment for the infants and family, but also provides a chance for all the staff members to read the behavior of the infants, think and reflect before doing something to the infants.
Chen
C H
CH
Department of Pediatrics, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan.
Wang
T M
TM
Chi
C S
CS
D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D013624:Taiwan