Family integrated care: Supporting parents as primary caregivers in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Family integrated care (FICare) is a collaborative model of neonatal care which aims to address the negative impacts of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) environment by involving parents as equal partners, minimizing separation, and supporting parent-infant closeness. FICare incorporates psychological, educational, communication, and environmental strategies to support parents to cope with the NICU environment and to prepare them to be able to emotionally, cognitively, and physically care for their infant. FICare has been associated with improved infant feeding, growth, and parent wellbeing and self-efficacy; important mediators for long-term improved infant neurodevelopmental and behavioural outcomes.

Family Integrated Care for Preterm Infants.

Parent-infant separation is a major source of stress for parents of hospitalized preterm infants and has negative consequences for infant health and development. Family Integrated Care (FICare) uses a strengths-based approach, based on family-centered care principles to promote parental empowerment, learning, shared decision making, and positive parent-infant caregiving experiences. Outcomes of FICare include increased self-efficacy upon discharge and improved parent-infant relationships and infant developmental outcomes.

A Time-Based Analysis of Inflammation in Infants at Risk of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia.

Objective: To precisely delineate the timing and contribution of inflammation to bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm infants during the neonatal period.

Study Design: Longitudinal study of blood inflammatory biomarkers (interleukin [IL]-6, IL-8, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor) measured between birth and 42 days of age, at high temporal (daily) resolution, in infants born at or below 30 weeks of gestation. Cytokine predictors of BPD at 36 weeks postmenstrual age were adjusted for infant-specific and time-dependent factors, using hierarchical mixed effects regressions models.