Baby-friendly Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit provides service for patients with 120 third level beds in Maternity Hospital and 30 third level beds in Children's Hospital and 150 beds in total in Ankara City Hospital. 24 beds in Maternity Hospital and Maternal-infant Bonding Clinic with 20 beds in Children's Hospital are for monitorization of babies being prepared to be discharged with their parents. Pharmacotherapies as well as many interventional procedures are managed for the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal disorders. All the necessary intensive care services such as parenteral nutrition, mechanical ventilator therapy, incubator maintenance, monitorization, bedside ECG, ultrasonography, exchange transfusion, phototherapy, peritoneal dialysis, hypothermia treatment, Inhaled Nitric Oxide Therapy are provided. ''Family-centered intensive care unit service principle is adopted for patient-focused care as well as maternal bonding development from the first day. Increasing the rate of nutrition and breastfeeding with breast milk and Preterm and ill babies requiring advanced life support is aimed. Other than maternal-infant bonding, newborns who are decided to continue their care and treatment at home, they are monitorized in Maternal-infant Bonding Clinic and parental training is provided. Our hospital has started studies to be ''Baby-friendly Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and underwent assessment after mother-friendly and baby-friendly hospital studies had completed successfully. After this assessment, our hospital was entitled to be ''Baby-friendly Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
INTENSIVE CARE UNIT SUPPORT FOR BREASTFEEDING POLICY
1) All the healthcare professionals working in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit underwent mother's milk and breastfeeding consultation training including low birthweight and/or risky infant feeding and they have the skills to provide this consultancy.
2) If the infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit cannot be breastfed, expressing breast milk of the mother within the first 6 hours following the delivery is supported and expressing breast milk is repeated every 2-3 hours, providing the necessary stimulation of the breasts for milk production.
3) Infants who are treated in our neonatal intensive care unit are fed breast milk of their own mothers apart from the absence of mother or when breastfeeding is inconvenient.
4) Infants who are able to latch on mother breast are started to be breastfed again immediately by Supplemental Nursing System when breast milk is insufficient. Feeding is conducted by container, syringe or feeding tube in babies who are not able to latch on mother breast.
5) Skin-to-Skin Contact is implemented between mother and baby as much as possible in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, providing Kangaroo Care by minimizing technical instruments and details. Mother baby togetherness is enhanced by rooming-in before discharge, continuing to monitor babies who are considered necessary to do so.
27.09.2022