A hospitalization is never easy, but it can be especially difficult when the hospital is all a baby has ever known. Babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach are born prematurely or with a congenital birth abnormality and are usually in the hospital for 1-3 months. The Child Life Program at Miller Children’s works to make a NICU stay more comforting for NICU families and the baby itself.

One of Child Life’s key components when supporting NICU babies and their families is supporting the sibling(s) of the NICU patient. A Child Life Specialist can sit down with a sibling and talk to them about what kind of medical equipment they may see on their little brother or sister and answer any questions the sibling may have before they visit. This helps normalize the hospital environment and alleviate possible anxieties.

“Depending on where a child is developmentally, it may be difficult for them to understand what is going on with their younger sibling,” says Brittany Garrison, MS, Child Life Specialist, Miller Children’s. “Medical play is the perfect way to desensitize medical equipment because we give them a chance to touch it and play with it and see that it’s not so scary before they see their sibling.”

Siblings of NICU patients also are given a scrapbook to document their visits to the hospital. The scrapbook helps them understand the NICU environment and helps familiarize language they may hear in the hospital. Parents are encouraged to go through the scrapbook with the sibling to help with the coping process.

Child Life encourages parents to interact with their baby by reading books and singing to them to aid in bonding – especially when they aren’t able to hold the baby due to their fragile state. Child Life works with music therapists to create a variety of sounds using instruments and singing to stimulate the brain and help with the patient’s developmental growth.

“We work on supporting the baby’s goals through music,” says Laurel Terreri, MA,
MT-BC, music therapist, Miller Children’s. “Whether they are working on maintaining a calm state or focusing on more active developmental activities, we work to help them achieve those goals.”

The music therapists at Miller Children’s work with families one-on-one to teach the benefits of music therapy. Families can also write songs for their baby with a music therapist and record them on a CD to take home as a memory.

Once a NICU patient is finally ready to go home, Child Life provides a certificate for nurses to fill out with the patient’s weight and length at discharge compared to when they were born to see how the baby has grown during their stay at the NICU. The certificate comes with a crochet graduation hat, courtesy of Knots of Love, for the baby to wear when they become a NICU “graduate.”

For more information about the Child Life Program at Miller Children’s, visit MillerChildren’s.org/ChildLife.