Concern for mortality in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU): parent and physician perspectives.

Objective: The objectives of this study are as follows: (1) to determine the incidence of parental concern for mortality (PCM) and any potential predictors for it among parents of infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and (2) to explore physicians' perspectives with respect to PCM in the NICU and to examine current practices of addressing it.

Study Design: Separate questionnaires were distributed to members of the AAP Section on Perinatal-Neonatal Medicine District I and to NICU parents post discharge, to gather perspectives from each group. A χ-analysis and linear regression were performed.

A Failure to Be Candid.

I was a second-year neonatal-perinatal fellow in a meeting between other members of the neonatal intensive care team and parents who had just received devastating news about their planned-for and highly desired baby, born after what had been an uncomplicated pregnancy. At home, a little sister was waiting to meet her new brother. These conversations are never easy, but this one I found particularly disturbing.

Antenatal calcium channel blocker exposure and subsequent patent ductus arteriosus in extremely low-birth-weight infants.

This study aimed to assess whether tocolytic fetal exposure to antenatal calcium channel blockers (aCCB) increases the risk for hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (hsPDA) in extremely low-birth-weight (ELBW) infants. This case-control study investigated ELBW infants (<1,000 g) without cardiac defects in a level 3 neonatal intensive care unit who had survived at least 7 days. Nifedipine was the only aCCB used for this study population.