On Wednesday, May 24, Chief Medical Officer for Northern Ireland Dr. Michael McBride launched a new website to support parents bringing a premature baby home from a neonatal intensive care unit. The website was developed through a research grant from TinyLife to a team of researchers linked to the Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation and the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queens University Belfast and the University of California, San Francisco (Professor Linda Franck and Dr. Elizabeth Rogers). It was developed for parents by parents and health and social care providers working together and is written with both mums and dads in mind.
Researchers spoke with groups of parents about their needs and experiences after they went home from hospital with their premature baby. They also looked at what resources were currently available as a guide for parents. The website offers practical and interactive videos from parents and health professionals. Although developed in Northern Ireland, the website will be useful resource for English-speaking families bring a preterm baby home from neonatal intensive care units around the world.