My rollercoaster experience of SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit Advice)

Member Name: Kelly2719

Product:	Special Care Baby Unit Advice
Date:	23/02/09 (171 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: My beautiful baby girl!

Disadvantages: Too many to list, see below.

I want to share my experience of SCBU with others as I didn't know anything about it until I had my premature baby and I think it would of really helped me if I had known a little about it.

SCBU stands for special care baby unit, it is also called NNU - neonatal unit or NICU - neonatal intensive care unit. It is a unit within a hospital which caters for mainly premature babies who are born too early (before 37 weeks is classed as premature) but also babies who may have been born full term but have any problems. These can range from something quite common like jaundice to serious conditions such as heart problems. If your baby is premature you are usually told to aim for your due date as the day you will take them home if they keep improving and progress normally.

SCBU runs 24 hours a day and is always full of doctors and nurses who are specialised in the care of neonates. There are usually different degrees of care within the unit, Intensive care is for the most unwell babies, some may be on ventilators and the care is one to one so each nurse cares for one baby. Then there will be the next stage down where nurses will look after 2 or 3 babies each who are not needing as much care. The last stage is the nursery where babies are in real cots and nearly ready to go home. There will not usually be many staff here and parents are expected where possible to care for their baby.



After my daughter was born at 32 weeks (8 weeks early) she was immediately taken away from me and down to our NICU which is in the same building. I was allowed to go down and see her after 3 hours and my first ever visit was a very scary one. You cannot even begin to imagine what it is like to see incubators everywhere containing babies, some so small its hard to even see them under the mass of wires and tubes. There were machines everywhere and constant noise of beeping and alarms going off and allsorts. I was taken to my baby girl who was in an incubator and I was told she was doing well. The nurses were great and explained all the different machines to me. She had a machine connected to her chest which told them her breathing and heart rate. Another one monitored her temperature and another on her foot for her oxygen levels in her blood. She had a canula in her arm to administer medicine through and a tube down her throat into her tummy to feed her through. She was having trouble breathing so was on a machine called CPAP (constant positive airway pressure) which pushed air into her lungs to inflate them as her lungs were not fully developed yet. Despite all this she still looked beautiful to me!

We were informed of all the rules and routines of the unit. Parents are allowed in 24 hours a day but there are visiting hours for other people and only 3 people were allowed in at a time. No children were allowed apart from siblings of the baby and they were very strict on this as children can carry a lot of bugs which could be deadly for these babies. Hand washing was extremely important and had to be done on entering and leaving the unit and before and after touching the baby.

It was heartbreaking having my baby there but not being able to hold her and cuddle her like your mothers instinct tells you too. We were allowed to touch her through holes in the incubator. There are no facilities for parents to stay except in exceptional circumstances so I went home the day after I gave birth to my princess but spent every single day in the unit with her. Those first few days were the hardest as we didn't know if she was going to get better or worse but after only a few days she came off the CPAP and was breathing for herself with an oxygen supply running up her nose through a thin tube. Our first cuddle was amazing and very emotional, she felt so tiny in my arms but I never wanted to put her down! We had a few setback as she developed jaundice and had to stay under special lights until it improved.

It sounds strange but the first time I saw her with clothes on I cried! She had been kept naked apart from a nappy so doctors and nurses could easily get to her but we arrived one morning to find her dressed in a little sleep suit and she looked so cute, just like a little doll! Buying clothes to fit her was very difficult though. The only places I know of they do a very premature baby size is Mothercare but next, ASDA and Tescos so an early baby size which is from around 5lb/6lb. Prem baby nappies are made by huggies and pampers and can be bought in mother care but you may have to ask them as they are not usually on the shelves. I recommend the pampers as the huggies leaked!

I started expressing breast milk as soon as she was born and she was fed via tube at first. After about a week we had our first breastfeed and she was a natural! She did tire very easily though so we only attempted these once a day at the most. After 3 weeks my baby girl had improved enough to be moved into the stage 3 nursery room and into a proper cot! This was an amazing day for us as we had open access to our baby and could pick her up as often as we liked, dress her and play with her. Just normal things most parents take for granted but we had been unable to do for 3 weeks. We only spent a week in the nursery as she was a great feeder and was putting on weight well. I 'roomed in' for 2 nights which is when you get given a small room to share with your baby so you can get used to their routine and being alone with them before you go home. We were then free to take our princess home! I can still remember how it felt walking out of the hospital that day with her in her car seat thinking she was 4 weeks old and this was the first time she had ever been outside!

Having a baby in SCBU is a very scary experience and something it is very hard to come to terms with. I still feel jealous of other people who have normal births and get to take their baby straight home with them and hold them straight away but its slowly getting better. I am forever grateful to the skills and expertise of the doctors and nurses as without them my little girl wouldn't be here. She has just turned 1 years old and is perfect! She does have asthma and suffers from a lot of coughs and colds but her development has been amazing and she was walking at 11 months despite being 2 months early! She really is the light of our lives and I would go through all that again to have her here with us.

I am happy to answer any questions anyone might have or if anyone wants to talk please send me a message. One thing I found is that you feel very alone as no one else can understand what its like unless they have gone through it themselves. It was the hardest thing i have ever done in my life to leave my baby every night in the hospital with strangers and go home, my heart felt like it was being wrenched out of my chest every single time.

I hope my story hasn't been too long and boring!

I wanted to share this poem which really touched me, i have been unable to find out the author though despite searching on the internet. Hope its ok to post it.

Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen? Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger.

"Beth Armstrong, son. Patron Saint, Matthew. Marjorie Forrest, daughter. Patron Saint, Celia. Carrie Rutledge, twins. Patron Saint ... give her Gerard. He's used to profanity." Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles. "Give her a preemie."

The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."
"Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter? That would be cruel."

"But does she have the patience?" asks the angel.
"I don't want her to have too much patience, or she'll drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it. I watched her today. She has that sense of self and independence so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has a world of its own. She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."

"But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."
God smiles. "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just the right amount of selfishness."
The angel gasps, "Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?"

God nods.

"If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she will never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't know it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a spoken word. She will never consider a step ordinary. When her child says 'mama' for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it. I will permit her to see clearly the things I see - ignorance, cruelty, prejudice - and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."

"And what about her Patron Saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in the air. God smiles.

"A mirror will suffice."

Summary: I am forever grateful to my NNU as without them my baby girl wouldn't be here today.