Beyond the NICU

While it is easy to focus all of our attention on our fragile baby, we will be unable to care for them if we do not first take care of ourselves. Guests include Renee Trudeau, author of The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal and Kelli Foulkrod, psychotherapist and yoga teacher in Austin, TX, specializing in pregnancy and postpartum mood disorders.

In this episode, we talk with licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and NICU parent, Kara Whalin, about risk factors and warning signs of postpartum depression, anxiety and PTSD during and after a NICU stay. 

Joining us to talk about finding your footing as parents in the Zero Zone is Kelley Benham French. Kelley is a professor of practice in journalism at Indiana University. A former reporter and editor for the Tampa Bay Times, she was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for “Never Let Go,” a series about her Daughter Juniper’s early birth at 23 weeks and six days. She is the co-author along with her husband of the book, Juniper, The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon, that chronicles their challenges with infertility, and the fear, sadness, exhaustion and joy of their daughter’s 196 day NICU journey.

In this episode:

• Kelli discusses the difference between bonding with a newborn just after delivery and bonding with a medically fragile infant in the NICU.
• How bonding benefits both the baby and the parent.
• How parents who may be suffering from PPD may find it more difficult to bond with their baby, and how parents can process their emotions so they can start the bonding process.
• The benefits of parents being integrated into their baby’s care in the NICU

This episode is sponsored by Huggies. 

In this episode:

• How parents can avoid letting stress and anxiety take over and find their footing in the NICU.
• Advice for empowering yourself as a parent and becoming your baby’s advocate.
• How to embrace your feelings of guilt and inadequacy, for they are normal, but to let go of the expectations you one had for your pregnancy/baby.
• Guilt about fears of caring for a disabled child.

This episode is sponsored by Prolacta Bioscience. 

In This Episode:

• Kelli’s overwhelming emotions upon meeting her micropreemie son Jackson for the first time.
• What is anticipatory grief and what does it mean for NICU parents?
• What emotions can parents expect when faced with a NICU experience/meeting their baby for the first time?
• The different ways in which grief and shame manifest themselves in NICU parents.
• How moms and dads process guilt/grief differently.

This episode is sponsored by Prolacta Bioscience. 

The NICU Now Audio Support Series is Hand to Hold's podcast for parents who are currently in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The Prologue introduces listeners to what they can expect with the series.