Community wisdom for the NICU

After Niki’s review last week of Pagan Parenting in the NICU, there was some great discussion on the Pagan Families Facebook page about NICU experiences. Several people shared their advice on dealing with the NICU and some obvious themes and points of agreement emerged.

I didn’t want all that great advice to get lost to the scrolling away Facebook feed, so I’ve collected it here. This is your community wisdom for life in  the NICU:

• Connect with a social worker, nurse, or doctor who can be your ally and get you the information you need.
• Be firm, reasonable, and persistent in advocating for your baby.
• Take excellent care of yourself, including eating, sleeping, exercising, taking deep breaths, and letting yourself cry.
• Working with the staff social worker you may be able to get practical support such as meals for yourself or help dealing with insurance.
• Cultivate faith and hope.
• As soon as possible, hold, breastfeed, and touch your baby skin-to-skin.

If you’ve spent time in the NICU and have other advice to share, please leave it in the comments.