Advances in Neonatal Care

From the Editors

From the Editors 2023(3)

We continue to address issues that impact the full inclusion of families in our nurseries. Our editorial outlines how incivility and microaggression can impact families and a research article describes the use of a community advisory board for transcreation of research study materials to ensure accurate and culturally appropriate measures. We also have three articles that are centered around families including preparing for household emergencies following hospital discharge, parental participation in NICU occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech and language therapy, and the impact of parent collaboration on the quality of family centered care.

In this issue we also have a quality improvement and research article focused on infant feeding; “Impact of an Infant Driven Feeding initiative on feeding outcomes in the preterm neonate”, and “Risk of feeding problems among infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome: A Retrospective Cohort Study”. We also have two developmentally oriented articles that you might find of interest, one about use of HeartSong as a music therapy and a second on the impact of handling moderate to late preterm infants.

Finally, if you are a new author and need mentoring to bring your manuscript across the finish line please reach out to us for assistance ([email protected]). Our editorial board engages in one-on-one mentorship regarding writing for publication.

Hot Topics

Fresh from Issue 3! Inclusion of Spanish-Speaking Families in NICU Symptom Research Using a Community Advisory Board

Ensuring participation in research from diverse families is essential to understanding the needs of all families. This study describes the use of a community advisory board to prepare for transcreation of research study materials. Accurate and culturally appropriate transcreation of study measures can reduce barriers to research participation and enhance communication with non-English speaking families.

Fresh from Issue 3! A Scoping Review of Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal and the Infant Gut Microbiome: Does Human Milk Optimize Infant Outcomes?

While research suggests there is a the protective role of human milk to the development of the infant gut microbiome, it is not known if this association is true for infants with opioid withdrawal syndrome. This literature review aimed to summarize the evidence regarding the influence of human milk on infant gut microbiota in infants with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome. However, with no studies found the authors lay out suggestions for further scientific inquiry in this area.

Encourage, Assess, Transition (EAT): A Quality Improvement Project Implementing a Direct Breastfeeding Protocol for Preterm Hospitalized Infants
Improving direct breastfeeding for preterm infants is an area many NICUS are trying to address. This article provides a successful strategy for supporting these infants and their mothers in getting these infants to breast sooner, and more often while they are still hospitalized in the NICU.

Agreement of the Neonatal Pain, Agitation, and Sedation Scale (N-PASS) With NICU Nurses' Assessments
The Neonatal Pain, Agitation, and Sedation scale (NPASS) is used to monitor pain for high-risk infants in many NICUs around the globe. This study examines how this scale score correlates with nursing assessments. Understanding how the tool is being used and how it influences nursing care is important to finding ways to better use this tool in the management of neonatal pain.

Reducing Risk Factors for Necrotizing Enterocolitis: What Is the Recent Evidence and Biologic Plausibility Supporting Probiotics?

Is the use of probiotics recommended for reducing NEC? This is a great question, and the answers are discussed in the CEU article which is a systematic review in this issue – we hope you will read the pros and cons provided in this interesting article.

Differences in Neonatal Outcomes Among Premature Infants Exposed to Mother's Own Milk Versus Donor Human Milk

This review articles provides an overview of the difference in outcomes for preterm infants receiving mother's own milk as opposed to donor human milk and why we should consider more strategies to support the use of mother's own milk. While donor milk provides some things formula cannot it is not the same as mother's milk.