Newborn Intensive Care: What Every Parent Needs to Know (Zaichkin, Newborn Intensive Care)
The all-inclusive subtitle is indeed accurate - this bargain-priced reference book for new parents facing a newborn's health problems and the medical community's response to them, covers it all. Trying to untangle medical terminology, hospital procedures that may be painful for the infant and frightening for the parents, the seemingly limitless personnel now charged with your baby's care and the unknown future, all during what should be a time of family joy, is what every parent dreads being faced with. Newborn Intensive Care provides a calm, caring but realistic guide to help families cope. Well-informed parents will be more apt to make correct decisions, ask the right follow-up questions and consequently worry less. This book succeeds brilliantly in providing information - both technical and anecdotal - that will turn parents into well-informed medical consumers and advocates for their baby's care. The book includes a thorough index and glossary for quick reference when medical personnel use technical and confusing language. There is also a bibliography, helpful photos and diagrams and encapsulated notes on outside margins throughout. The chapter on taking your baby home from the hospital - Homeward Bound, Chapter 15 - is excellent, and conveys a sense of optimism and joy, though problems are addressed realistically. This is a book that should be in every hospital's newborn intensive care unit. --Independent Publisher