Once upon a time in the Intensive Care Unit ...
Innovative research investigates the importance of reading to newborns in the NICU
2010-12-15
(Press-News.org) MONTREAL, December 14, 2010 – The first few days after birth is an important time when babies learn to recognize the sound of their parents' voice and the parents in turn bond with their children. However, the separation between parents and newborns admitted to the intensive care unit can be very difficult and can disrupt the early development of this relationship.
Jan Lariviere, a nurse in the neonatal clinic and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at The Montreal Children's Hospital (MCH) of the MUHC led an innovative research project that suggests reading to newborns in the NICU greatly lends normalcy and allows parents to feel closer to their babies during this difficult period. The results are published in the latest edition of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
"The objective of the study, which involved 120 families, was to determine whether reading helped strengthen the bond between parents and their babies, and whether this motivated parents to continue reading at home," said Lariviere, principal investigator of the study.
"Alyssia was in an incubator in the middle of the room, with tubes and all sorts of things going on around her. I felt destabilized and powerless, not knowing how to make contact with my daughter," said Mélissa Asselin, mother of Alyssia Barrière, now five years old, who was born with pulmonary hypertension. "Reading gave us a way to stay close. I couldn't talk to her or touch her, but she heard the sound of my voice. That simple activity helped me get through the situation, and I have beautiful memories of the experience."
Nearly 70% of parents in the study reported that reading made them feel closer to their babies. Most said they developed a feeling of intimacy and normalcy, as well as feeling more in control of the situation as parents. In addition, the parents who read to their child in the NICU were three times as likely to continue this practice at home. "As health professionals, we must give parents the tools they need to cope with the situation," noted Lariviere. "Reading should become an essential tool in NICUs and follow-up clinics."
"This study, the first of its kind, focused on the effects of reading to newborns in the NICU," said Dr. Janet Rennick, co-author of the study, Nurse Scientist at the MCH and Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing and Department of Pediatrics, McGill University. "We plan to continue our research efforts over the coming years to evaluate the long-term effects of nursing interventions on the development of critically ill children."
INFORMATION:
Find this press release, with the original article, a short audio file and photos by following this link: www.muhc.ca/media/news/
Funding
The study entitled "Parent Picture-Book Reading to Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as an Intervention Supporting Parent-Infant Interaction and Later Book Reading" was made possible by grants from the Eureka! Fellowship in Nursing Research at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), funded by Richard and Shitoko Ingram of the Newton Foundation and the Montreal General Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital, and the Montreal Children's Hospital Foundations.
The study was also supported by the Canadian Nurses' Foundation Nursing Care Partnership Program.
On the Web :
LIRE / IMAGINE / READ: www.thechildren.com/en/news/news.aspx?id=906
Books for babies: www.muhealth.org/body_chserv.cfm?id=1129
Canadian pediatric society: www.cps.ca
ABC Canada: www.abclifeliteracy.ca
About the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)
One of the world's foremost academic he
alth centres, the MUHC offers exceptional and integrated patient-centric care, research and teaching. Highly committed to the continuum of care in its community and affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University, The Montreal Children's Hospital, the Montreal General Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Montreal Neurological Hospital, the Montreal Chest Institute and the Lachine Hospital of the MUHC value multidisciplinary service throughout the lifespan, innovative technologies and practices, strategic partnerships and leadership in knowledge transfer. The MUHC is currently carrying out a $2.25-billion Redevelopment Project on three campuses—the Mountain, the Glen and Lachine—designed to provide healthcare professionals with an effective environment in which to ensure patients and their families benefit from The Best Care for Life. The campuses are also anchored in best sustainable-development practices, including LEED® and BOMA BESt guidelines.
www.muhc.ca www.muhc.ca/construction
Media contact:
Julie Robert
Communications Coordinator (Research)
Public Affairs and Strategic Planning, MUHC
Phone: 514 934-1934 ext. 71381
E-mail: julie.robert@muhc.mcgill.ca
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2010-12-15
Madison, WI December 14, 2010 -- Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have proven that measuring fluorescence could improve source water monitoring during a study of the McKenzie River in Oregon. The study was designed to assess the amount, type and source of dissolved organic carbon that exists in all sources of drinking water.
Dissolved organic carbon can react with chlorine during water treatment and form halogenated compounds, commonly referred to as disinfection byproducts. Some of these byproducts are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ...
2010-12-15
Laboratory culture (in vitro) studies examining the activity of human umbilical cord blood cells (HUCB) on experimental models of central nervous system aging, injury and disease, have shown that HUCBs provide a 'trophic effect' (nutritional effect) that enhances survival and maturation of hippocampal neurons harvested from both young and old laboratory animals.
"As we age, cognitive function tends to decline," said Alison E. Willing, PhD, a professor in the University of South Florida's (USF) Department of Neurosurgery and Brain repair and lead author for a study published ...
2010-12-15
They say it's the little things that count, and that certainly holds true for the channels in transmembrane proteins, which are small enough to allow ions or molecules of a certain size to pass through, while keeping out larger objects. Artificial fluidic nanochannels that mimic the capabilities of transmembrane proteins are highly prized for a number of advanced technologies. However, it has been difficult to make individual artificial channels of this size – until now.
Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley ...
2010-12-15
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Brown University sociologists have developed a device to gather more reliable data about risky sexual behavior among Ethiopian teenagers and young adults than conventional face-to-face interviews can produce. Simple, portable, low-cost, and low-tech, the group's new nonverbal response card allows respondents to communicate nonverbally and confidentially during face-to-face interviews. Professors of sociology David Lindstrom and Dennis Hogan, and postdoctoral research associate Megan Klein Hattori published their findings in the December ...
2010-12-15
Psychological scientists are faced with the arduous task of identifying distinctions between humans without stigmatizing groups of people based on these differences. In this special section of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, experts present reasons for why differences in gender, race, sexual orientation, and culture should not be framed as deficits within the field of psychology.
Stigma From Psychological Science: Group Differences, Not Deficits—Introduction to Stigma Special Section (http://pps.sagepub.com/content/5/6/687.full) ...
2010-12-15
Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – Shooting steady pulses of electricity through slender electrodes into a brain area that controls complex behaviors has proven to be effective against several therapeutically stubborn neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Now, a new study has found that this technique, called deep brain stimulation (DBS), targets the same class of neuronal cells that are known to respond to physical exercise and drugs such as Prozac.
The study, led by Associate Professor Grigori Enikolopov, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), is the cover ...
2010-12-15
In the world-wide race to develop energy sources that are seen as "green" because they are renewable and less greenhouse gas-intensive, sometimes the most basic questions remain unanswered.
In a paper released today by the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, authors Michal Moore, Senior Fellow, and Sarah M. Jordaan at Harvard University in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, look at the basic question of whether these energy sources are ethical.
In addition to arguing that the greenhouse gas benefits of biofuel are overstated by many policymakers, ...
2010-12-15
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have described for the first time a key inhibitory role for the IL-1 signaling pathway in the human innate immune system, providing novel insights into human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and potential new treatments.
The research, led by Jose M. Gonzalez-Navajas, PhD, and Eyal Raz, MD, a professor of medicine at UC San Diego, is published as a Brief Definitive Report in the December issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
The researchers report that signaling by the interleukin 1 receptor ...
2010-12-15
A three-year study by Yale School of Medicine researchers has found that vaccinating pregnant women against influenza is over 90 percent effective in preventing their infants from being hospitalized with influenza in the first six months of life. Published in the December 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, the study builds on preliminary data the research team presented last year at the Infectious Disease Society of America in Philadelphia.
Influenza is a major cause of serious respiratory disease in pregnant women and of hospitalization in infants. Although the ...
2010-12-15
Two scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have provided the first details about the mysterious flashes of dazzling bioluminescent light produced by a little-known sea snail.
Dimitri Deheyn and Nerida Wilson of Scripps Oceanography (Wilson is now at the Australian Museum in Sydney) studied a species of "clusterwink snail," a small marine snail typically found in tight clusters or groups at rocky shorelines. These snails were known to produce light, but the researchers discovered that rather than emitting a focused beam of light, the animal uses ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Once upon a time in the Intensive Care Unit ...
Innovative research investigates the importance of reading to newborns in the NICU
