The NIDCAP Method is a revolutionary approach especially useful for the care of newborns and premature babies. We explain what it consists of.
In 2007 it was estimated that around 30,000 premature babies were born in Spain. The figure remained in 2012, when it was estimated that 29,122 premature children were born during that year, a percentage that reached 6.41% and that represented 1 in every 13 births. While the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 15 million premature babies are born each year.
A birth is considered premature when the baby is born before the 37th week of gestation, when a full-term pregnancy tends to be 40 weeks. In fact, a pregnancy normally tends to last about 40 weeks.
Since important growth and development of the baby takes place in the last months and weeks of pregnancy, when the baby is born very early, the baby has a lower weight and also some health problems since its organs have not yet developed enough.
Among other problems they may have hearing and vision problems, respiratory conditions, difficulties eating normally, developmental delay and cerebral palsy. Therefore, premature babies need special medical care, which takes place in the neonatal intensive care unit.
It is here that we come across what is known as the NIDCAP method, which becomes a new and revolutionary approach in the management of premature babies.
What is the NIDCAP method and what does it consist of?
It is a medical approach developed, in which a wide variety of environmental factors are taken into consideration, through a comprehensive approach to the supportive care of the baby’s development, treating both goals and objectives individually. Level of stability of the child.
In other words, it is a method focused on all babies and children, but it has incredible advantages for the proper development of the premature baby.
It is a care system that places parents as the primary caregivers of the newborn, helping it to be treated at all times according to its level of development.
What are its benefits for the premature baby?
Among other aspects, it is about reducing the intensity of both noise and light that can affect the rest and development of the premature baby, thus maintaining an incubator with an atmosphere similar to that present in the maternal uterus.
Certain devices that contain and mold the fetal position of the premature baby are also used, especially useful to improve their muscle tonicity and elasticity.
Skin-to-skin contact is favored, improving the mother / father-baby bond, which in turn reduces nosocomial infections that are acquired in the hospital environment.
In addition, it is common for doctors, nurses and midwives to group all procedures together, in this way it is possible to interrupt the sleep cycle of the premature baby as little as possible. Likewise, non-pharmacological analgesia measures are used, especially for procedures that involve pain intensity considered medium-low.
As we can see, it is an especially important model or approach with fundamental advantages, which not only reinforces the bond between parents and their child, but also improves the prognosis not only in the short but in the long term of the little one admitted to the unit. Neonatal intensive care, especially among premature infants and those who have been more serious at birth.
