A new program at an Edmonton hospital allows parents to monitor their newborns if a medical complication forces their separation.
It’s called the “NowICU project,” a secure videoconferencingsystem at Misericordia Community Hospital.
The program also allows parents to ask their care teams any questions they might have about their newborn’s treatment, while at the same giving the mothers some peace of mind during a stressful time.
“(It has) such a calming effect on the mother, her levels of anxiety decrease, same thing happens to the baby,” Dr. Mehaboob Shaik, a neonatologist at the hospital who came up with the idea, told CTV Edmonton. “The separation distress lowers down in both the mother and the baby and it helps the new Standard article mother to produce more milk.”
Catharina Lane was the first mother in the province to use the program. In November 2018, her son Lorcan was born six weeks premature and needed to be transferred to the NICU while doctors dealt with her excessive bleeding.
“The iPad came on wheels and (the nurse) said: ‘This is an iPad and you are actually the first mom to use it in Alberta’ and I was like ‘Oh, oh cool!’” Lane said.
Lane said the program helped her anxiety and could help others as well.
“Moms will definitely benefit from it,” she said.“You want to make sure that he’s OK because he's born early and you don’t know if he has any issues.”
A California hospital introduced a similar program back in 2013, but so far this is the only version available in Alberta. Mehaboob hopes to expand it to other hospitals in the province with goal of eventually creating an app which would allow parents to connect their babies using their personal devices.
