The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can be a stressful place for parents and their newborns.

The newborn is no longer in its safe, comfortable womb and instead is subject to a whole new world of uncomfortable pokes and procedures, while parents must endure the stress of seeing their newborn attached to IVs and machines instead of holding a healthy baby. This environment can make it difficult for parents to be involved and bond with their newborn.

The mother of a NICU baby recently recalled in an interview that she didn’t feel a bond with her newborn son, explaining, “There was so little I could even see of him. His face was covered by a respirator, and his little cap engulfed his whole head. There was none of that ‘oh, he has your eyes,’ or counting 10 fingers and 10 toes, all of those things that parents normally get to do.”¹

Depending on the newborn’s health and the type of intensive care he or she may need, parent involvement in their early moments may be few and far between.

Fortunately, swaddle bathing can allow parents to be involved in the newborn’s bathing experience while in the NICU or well-baby unit and can even help eliminate some of the stress on both the child and parent.

The TurtleTub by Catapult Products is a swaddle-bathing system that engages family during bath time.

UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital (PVH) in Fort Collins, Colorado implemented TurtleTub swaddle bathing last year. Both babies and their parents have had positive experiences.

“The swaddle bath sounded intriguing, and we thought it was a good opportunity to learn while in the hospital,” said one mother.² “But we (she and her husband) were both a little nervous about the bath. (Newborns) are so small and fragile, and I had heard they would cry and be unhappy. But as soon as we started doing it, it took a lot of my nervousness away. We dried [her] off and swaddled her back up. When we got back to the room, she slept for two hours and was very relaxed. It was such a cool experience to give her the bath and see how content and peaceful she was afterwards.”

Nurses at UCHealth PVH have also noticed overall positive outcomes with swaddle-bathing.

“Babies seem so much calmer; they don’t cry as much, it takes less time, and they seem so much warmer and cleaner than a sponge bath,” recalls a UCHealth nurse.²

MED Alliance recently received positive feedback from the OB and Women’s Health Director at a hospital in Michigan who began using the TurtleTub in April. She said, “The tubs are working great and our babies and their parents are loving the swaddle baths. We have had babies sleep through their whole bath. I am just amazed at what a difference the swaddle bath makes, and the tubs are so nice to keep the temperature accurate and steady.”

The TurtleTub is a swaddle-bathing system designed for NICU and Well-Baby units. The TurtleTub features ribs and high sides to support the infant, and a fleece blanket with thermal properties to help maintain the baby’s body temperature during the entire bath. Additionally, a temperature strip is featured within the tub so water temperature can be monitored and maintained consistently.

To learn more about how the TurtleTub swaddle-bathing system can help provide a positive experience in your NICU or Well-Baby Unit, please email us or call us at 888-891-1200.

MED Alliance Group is a medical device distributor with more than 350 years of combined medical device sales and distribution experience. Dedicated to meeting the needs of its clinical customers and manufacturing partners, MED Alliance offers cost-effective, customized sales, logistics, and distribution solutions for products found in anesthesia/respiratory, blood/transfusion therapy, EMS/emergency room, interventional radiology/cath lab, iv/vascular and NICU/PICU.

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References

1 https://www.seleni.org/advice-support/2018/3/16/the-stress-of-having-a-baby-in-the-nicu

2 https://www.uchealth.org/today/2017/07/20/introducing-new-bathing-technique-newborns/