A Preemie Parent's Survival Guide to the NICU details the journey of Megan Grandinetti and her husband during their NICU stay with their daughter Sofie. Sofie was born at 26 weeks and stayed for a tumultuous 5 months in the hospital. Megan gives new parents of preemies pieces of advice she wishes she had been told coming into the NICU. Through 18 personal tips, Megan paints a colorful overview of Sofie's time in the hospital, and the things she feels were critical to her family's success.

How Do I Still Be A Mom? You prepared for the expected. What about the unexpected events that lead you directly to the confines of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit? As you begin your new role, you can feel more like a visitor than a mom as the (temporary) circumstances dicate the part you will play in your new baby's life. This book validates a mother's anguish of leaving the hospital without her baby while helping her to embrace the unique experience of parenting a preemie.

What if you cared for your life the way the NICU cares for its patients? Imagine standing over a newborn and whispering, “I hope you work your fingers to the bone chasing someone else’s notion of the ‘good life’ until you’re so exhausted you don’t remember who you are or why you matter.” It’s unthinkable. Yet that’s where many of us find ourselves as adults: depleted, feeling stuck, and certain that life’s opportunities have passed us by. Isn’t it time we treated ourselves with more care? In this remarkable book of personal and professional transformation, Sue Ludwig, a neonatal therapist, shares how her tiny patients in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) guided her to step off her hamster wheel of existence and into a new way of living. Through real patient stories, reflection, and practical tools, she reveals how, by following the lead of these in her care, she found her way to a more vibrant, purposeful, and impactful life than she ever imagined possible—and how you can, too. You can break out of survival mode, take charge of your energy, and redirect it toward development and growth—just as Ludwig’s fragile NICU patients do. Moment by moment, baby step by baby step, chapter by chapter, you’ll come to see that your energy and potential aren’t gone. They’re not even lost. They’re simply waiting for you to reclaim them.

Each year, neonatal Intensive care units (NICUs) in the U.S. and around the world help thousands of sick or premature newborns survive. NICUs are committed to the ideals of family-centered care, which encourages shared decision-making between parents and NICU caregivers. In cases of infants with conditions marked by high mortality, morbidity, or great suffering, family-centered care affirms the right of parents to assist in making decisions regarding aggressive treatment for their infant. Often, these parents' difficult and intimate decisions are shaped profoundly by their religious beliefs. In light of this, what precisely are the teachings of the major world religious traditions about the status and care of the premature or sick newborn? Few studies have grappled with what major religious traditions teach about the care of the newborn or how these teachings may bear on parents' decisions. This volume seeks to fill this gap, providing information on religious teachings about the newborn to the multidisciplinary teams of NICU professionals (neonatologists, advance practice nurses, social workers), as well as to parents of NICU patients, and students of bioethics. In chapters dealing with Judaism, Catholicism, Denominational Protestantism, Evangelical Protestantism, African American Protestantism, Sunni and Shi'a Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Navajo religion, and Seventh Day Adventism, leading scholars develop the teachings of these traditions on the status, treatment, and ritual accompaniments of care of the premature or sick newborn. This is an essential book that will serve as a first resort for clinicians who need to understand the religious dynamics influencing anyone making a difficult decision about her sick newborn.

Families' religious beliefs often profoundly shape their approach to medical decisions, including treatment of their sick or premature newborns. But there are few studies of major religions' teachings about the newborn. This volume provides information to neonatal intensive care unit professionals, parents of NICU patients, and students of bioethics on religious teachings about the status, treatment, and ritual accompaniments of care of the newborn.