NICU Family Education & Information
This section of our website is designed to provide NICU families with information they may find useful during and after their child’s/children’s stay in the Shyan Sun, M.D. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Many of the resources were developed, or are supported, by the NICU Family Advisory Council (FAC). The FAC is made up of about 80 graduate NICU parents who volunteer their time to make the experiences of current NICU families a little easier. They are all grateful for the care their babies received in the NICU. The FAC is led by the Parent Coordinator, who is a part-time staff person, who also had a baby in the NICU.
- Welcome Letter/Guide to Spending Time in the NICU
- NICU Family Resource Guide
- A Parents’ Guide to Sibling Adjustment in the NICU
- NICU Family Newsletters
- Transition to Home: NICU Discharge Class
- Safe Sleep Guidelines
- Early Intervention Brochure
- Tummy Time
Small Baby Resources
- Small Baby Guide
- Noise in the NICU
- Recognizing and Responding to Your Baby’s Stress Signals
- Cycled Lightening in the NICU
- Supporting Your Small Baby in the NICU
Fact Sheets for NICU Terms/Conditions
- Apnea and Bradycardia
- Blood Transfusion
- Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD)
- Jaundice
- Kangaroo Care
- Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)
- Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC)
- Newborn Sepsis
- Patent Ductus Arteriosis (PDA)
- Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC)
- Umbilical Catheter
- Hypoglycemia
- Gastrostomy
- HIE (Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy)
- Waking Your Sleeping Baby
For questions, feedback, or to get involved with the NICU Family Advisory
Council, please contact:
Hayley Hirschmann, PhD
NICU Family Advisory Council Coordinator
NICU Buddy Program Coordinator
hayley.hirschmann@rwjbh.org
973-322-9486
Eileen Steffen, RNC
NICU Quality & Research Coordinator
NICU Family Advisory Council Co-Coordinator
eileen.steffen@rwjbh.org
973-322-9485
Calling all NICU Families
Join Our Online Community... facebook.com/cbmcnicu
NICU Family Resource Center
Often, the period following the birth of a premature infant can be a stressful time for parents that brings with it many unique questions and concerns. To help, Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center offers a Family Resource Center within its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
The NICU Family Resource Center at Cooperman Barnabas provides an inviting, comfortable space where parents and families with babies in the NICU can relax, reflect and access current, high-quality resources in support of their health information needs.
The idea came from the hospital’s Family Advisory Council, a concerned group of volunteer parents who had children in the Cooperman Barnabas NICU. Their hope it to use their firsthand knowledge to helps future NICU families. Funding was provided, in part, by The Livingston Sunrise Rotary and Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center Community Advocates.
“Nothing makes having a baby in the NICU easy,” said Hayley
Hirschmann, coordinator of the Family Advisory Council, whose own daughter
was delivered three months prematurely and spent 96 days in NICU at Cooperman Barnabas. “But, we’re trying to make it a little easier by
sharing our experiences.”
The Center’s design includes three separate areas for NICU parents, family members and other visitors. A Family Resource Library has books and pamphlets on many NICU issues like prematurity and breastfeeding and is equipped with computers and wireless internet access. A Family Lounge offers a relaxation space with a television and comfortable seating. The Family Room, which is separated from the lounge by a sliding wall, has many uses including a site for parent education classes and family trainings or a place to eat.
“Many of our NICU babies need to remain in the hospital to receive special care for weeks and months,” explains Eileen Steffen, R.N., NICU quality and research coordinator and co-coordinator of the Family Advisory Council. “The Center provides a place to help support families during the initial adjustment and when they come to the hospital to spend time with their baby.
Ms. Hirschmann says that parents use the areas for all sorts of things. It gives families a comfortable place to wait while their NICU baby is in surgery, working parents an opportunity to check emails and older children a space to do homework. The Center also has lockers to keep personal items in while families spend time with their baby in the NICU.