Families whose babies are born prematurely or with medical complications face unique challenges. NorthShore helps provide care for these newborns in the ISCU, our special care nursery. Working in tandem with the medical team, PFSC provides emotional support and developmental guidance to parents as they adjust to parenting their babies in a complex medical environment.
Specifically, the PFSC service aims to:
- Ease the initial crisis for families whose babies receive neonatal intensive care in the ISCU
- Assess family's emotional and concrete needs in relation to the unexpected birth of a premature or critically ill baby
- Facilitate parental attachment to their baby in alternative ways in light of the baby's compromised condition
- Help to interpret parental reactions and perceptions to ISCU multi-disciplinary team members
- Advocate for parent voice in the care of their baby
- Help develop and support healthy parental coping strategies
- Assess need for and provide appropriate resources for families in the ISCU
- Provide developmental guidance to parents regarding their premature baby's development and ways of communicating
- Explore impact of baby's hospitalization on partner, sibling, friends and family, and offer strategies for coping with their reactions
- Help ease the transition home with baby including addressing emotions, fears, expectations, and resources in their communities which may be of assistance to them
To learn more about neonatal intensive care, please call 847.570.2880.