Tea with Jodi blog post

Tea With Jodi Episode S1 E3

On today’s episode with Jill McLean we discussed premature babies and NICU stays for families.

Episode details

  • 380,000 babies born early each year. 30,000 this month alone. 15 million worldwide. 10-15% of live births result in a NICU admission
  • Babies born earlier than 32 weeks have to stay in the dark to mimic life in utero in the NICU
  • What can doulas do to help families who have had a pre-term baby? -sitting in the middle of things, let families talk and cry and whatever else they need to do in those moments. Provide non-judgemental support. Others get compassion fatigue, doulas don’t do that.
  • People don’t show up to support families who don’t bring babies home from the NICU after delivery.
  • Needs to be more education on this topic for the general public so that people understand what help is needed for premature babies
  • Covid times have changed how doulas can care for families. Make calls/zoom/facetime with people in the NICU sitting with their babies
  • Different states get different grades for higher levels of prematurely born infants per the March of Dimes website. Very interesting information that varies from state to state.
  • What can we do better? Prenatal care, non-biased evidence-based doula care, emotional support. Overall health & being mindful of social determinants of health.
  • Stay tuned for my Between The Lines segment

Michigan Family Doulas

Listen to the podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tea-with-jodi/id1653036361?i=1000585416602

Jill Mclean is a birth & postpartum doula and a doula trainer with ProDoula. She resides in Oregon with her family and is a busy doula & educator changing birth and early parenting in her community. Jill has personal experience with a premature birth and extended NICU stay.

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