A Good Night’s Sleep

Have you ever had your sleep interrupted? How did it make you feel? Irritable? Annoyed? Fussy? Why should it be any different for the babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)?

 
This fall, the NICU at Little Company of Mary Hospital – Torrance will start a transformation that will result in the revolutionary concept of providing each NICU baby a room of its own. As such, it will be the first hospital in Los Angeles County to do so. “Traditionally, most NICUs are designed for the ease of care for the doctors and nurses,” says Jon Yamamoto, MD, director of the NICU, who has been with Little Company of Mary for 16 years.

 
“Studies show that it's important for babies to have cycles of light,” Yamamoto explains, “but how do you cycle light when there are five to seven babies in the same room? It’s impossible. Although these studies are relatively new, they show that individual, customized care promotes weight gain, lowers infection rate, and increases parental satisfaction.”

In 2005, there were 198 babies admitted to the NICU at Little Company of Mary Hospital – Torrance. Of these, 161 were admitted from the hospital’s labor and delivery, the others from home births, or other facilities. This 6% admission rate from within the hospital is below the national norm, Yamamoto says, which is up to 10%.

Our Level III NICU can handle most complications and is ranked in the top 25% for healthy outcomes based on a survey by The Vermont Oxford Network.

Perinatologist C. Scott Naylor, MD, a new member of the medical staff, specializes in high-risk pregnancies. “One of the things that makes me who I am is the relationship that I have with the patients, and that relationship is based on open lines of communication and a large degree of compassion.”

When problems do become evident during the pregnancy, local mothers are fortunate to have the Little Company of Mary staff on hand. “Pregnancy, and specifically labor, is hard enough as it is,” Naylor says. “One thing I see at Little Company is a deep commitment to patient care. This is made evident by patient testimonials (filled with) praise for the nursing staff and happiness with their overall experience at Little Company. There are many institutions that can provide health services, but there’s only a select few that have the ability to take those services and mix them with an incredibly positive experience on behalf of the patient.”

Yamamoto advises all mothers-to-be to get good prenatal care, and to speak to the staff and directors of the NICU to see if their practices are in line with what they expect. Mothers should ask about feeding policies, especially those who want to breastfeed and are looking for that support. For example, if mothers at Little Company of Mary intend to breastfeed, the bottle isn’t introduced until breastfeeding is established. In most NICUs, according to Yamamoto, when babies are no longer intubated, they are encouraged to bottle feed first. Unfortunately, this greatly reduces the time necessary to establish breastfeeding before the mom and baby go home.

The changes to the NICU represent a huge commitment for Little Company of Mary to pursue. While the majority of advances in hospitals these days tend to focus on state-of-the-art technologies, our NICU is raising its service and care by emphasizing its focus on each individual baby like the precious bundle of joy he or she is.

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