If Your Newborn is Sick General Information Dr. Nathan About five percent of all newborns require special medical care shortly after birth. This is due to problems such as premature birth, low blood sugar, birth defects, and infections. Although most of these children do very well, they often require care in a special care unit. This is a special nursing unit where the baby can be observed more closely and receive more intensive nursing care than would be possible in the normal newborn nursery. When a baby has a problem sufficiently severe to require transfer to the NICU, parents will face many unanticipated emotions.
Parents spend months to years anticipating the arrival of a healthy newborn baby.
When their infant does not meet that expectation, they may feel grief, anger, guilt, and an intense sense of loss. These are all normal emotions. Parents may also feel a loss of control as nurses, doctors, and others provide medical and basic care for their infant. They think that somehow they are responsible for their child's medical problem. Even after being repeatedly told that it was not something that they did, many mothers remain convinced they caused their child's illness.