anyone with any understanding of neonatal intensive care situations?

[inneedofinfo]

my good friend went into labour of tuesday. On wednesday i had heard nothing via text so emailed her sister to ask is there was any news.

Her sister replied that the baby had been born tues night but was currently in intensive care and they wouldnt know if he was going to be OK until thursday. My friend had also undergone 2 blood transfusions.

I didnt want to ask what had gone wrong in case i sounded insensitive. Today I emailed again to ask if there was any news. The sister emailed back that the baby was coming off sedation today and would be 'warmed' later and they would know more then.

I didnt want to bombard her with questions - so im coming here to ask. why would baby be under sedation or need to be 'warmed'?

Any info would be great. Im so worried!

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From my own experience, sedation was to help with prevent seizures, not sure about the warming

Worrying times for all

One thing I would say though, all my friends and family held off sending cards and gifts when my dd birth went very wrong, in case it went worse and I felt so sad that even though things were rocky, no one congratulated us. I remember thinking, if she died, she had nothing to say she had been born. My sister sent in a little teddy and I was so pleased she had a possesion

So, might be nice to send them a card and/or gift

Some babies are cold when born and need to go under a heat lamp. My son did. It could be that.

That sounds quite odd... I know that when you talk about babies coming off the ventilator you gradually reduce it known as 'weaning'... could it be that the sister has got the words muddled and actually means 'ventilation' and 'weaned'. One would hope the baby would be warm regardless!

VERY hard to say without more details, sorry. Hope all goes ok. And yes DO congratulate them!

thankyou sol. I really didnt know whether to send anything, but youre right. I am definately going to send a gift now. thanks for your advice x

I would second that, I think it's important to congratulate them on the baby. It could be any number of things I suppose, the sister may not be too sure herself about the medical details but it is an extremely worrying time I agree. They are fab as a rule in Neonatal units though so I'm sure baby is in good hands.

Hiya, my twins were 2 months premature and in NNU for 2 months. One of my twins livers wasn't fully developed and she had to be kept under a heat lamp/sun lamp because it helps the liver to break down waste products in the blood. After a few days some blood tests showed her liver still needed extra help so she had a blood transfusion and remained under the heat lamp for a while longer. Eventually (after a few weeks) her liver matured and the heat lamp was removed. Both are now absolutely perfect.

It could be they have done the blood transfusion and are know hoping the heat lamp will be enough to keep him going otherwise he might need another transfusion !!??!!

Might be that ??

Hiya, my twins were 2 months premature and in NNU for 2 months. One of my twins livers wasn't fully developed and she had to be kept under a heat lamp/sun lamp because it helps the liver to break down waste products in the blood. After a few days some blood tests showed her liver still needed extra help so she had a blood transfusion and remained under the heat lamp for a while longer. Eventually (after a few weeks) her liver matured and the heat lamp was removed. Both are now absolutely perfect.

It could be they have done the blood transfusion and are know hoping the heat lamp will be enough to keep him going otherwise he might need another transfusion !!??!!

Might be that ??

hmmm, she was quite specific actually. She said that he was coming off sedation later today and would be 'warmed' from 1am tomorrow morning.

Thanks for all comments so far. Am off to buy a gift / card so send asap!

Actually, I remember watching something on tv the UCH were trialing. They were keeping the babies cool and the babies were wearing cooling hats to help minimise brain damage, might be something like that??

yes, sol, when im googling (dangerous i know) but that's what im coming up with too.

hopefully will know more tomorrow and it will be good news..

warming might be that head cap thing for lack of oxygen at birth. DD was in the trial for that when she was in NICU but sadly in the control group. Sedation would be for seizures.
I'm guessing the baby was without oxygen at birth.
Can you visit? She's probably feeling scared and alone. I had barely any visitors when dd was in NICU cos people 'didn't know what to say' and just sat alone in my room crying listening to healthy babies on the ward.

needmorecoffee.

sadly we are at opposite ends of the country. It does sound like it was a horrendous delivery. The baby was full term and she went into hospital when her labour started excited and with no anticipated problems. The fact that she ended up needing two blood transfusions and the baby ended up in intensive care suggests that it all went wrong during delivery?

Thats interesting about the warming cap. Would that come after the cooling cap as suggested by sacredoflove?

needmorecoffee, horrible sitting there, most lonely time of my life. I just wanted people to come and coo, just like they did for my others but everyone stayed away. Felt like shouting 'she hasn't died yet!! Look, tell me she's gorgeous' They were hard days

meant cooling cap. they then warm the baby. sorry, dd screaming so brain frazzled

yeah, my son was in SCBU after a traumatic birth - he needed ventilating and sedating and anticonvulsants and all manner of things - bit of a blur now. Was also completely unexpected.
Basically I called one friend to keep her up to date and she passed on the news to others. It was a bit wierd for me actually - I felt like people didnt realise how serious he was, that he might die, and why were they sending me congratulations? I got cards and flowers sent to the unit which I didnt really appreciate at the time, but had I not got any I think I would have felt way worse than I did. Like someone else said - I might have felt people were condemning him before he had a chance.
Bascially, its hard to do right, but I'd err on the side of send your warmest wishes and a card of congratulations. You've done right in coming here to ask, rather than bombarding them. Hope it all goes well for them.

Just to add, being sedated doesn't automatically mean that the baby was having seizures - that is only one of a number of reasons for sedation. Sometimes they are sedated just to allow them time to 'rest'. Hope all is going well

Intensive care is very hot (in oxford they call it the hot room)
before babies go to special care (which is lower level care) they go to high care for a bit in a cot to check that they can maintain their boy temperature themselves. Maybe that is what is meant?

err body temperature, sorry