Weaning premature babies off oxygen therapy and tube feeding making care from home a possibility | News By your side    Patients & visitors Our services Professionals & partners Covid-19 About us Getting involved Working here Contact us Now viewing: Home > About us > News Weaning premature babies off oxygen therapy and tube feeding making care from home a possibility Posted Thursday, 25 November 2021 by Communications Team As we approach the end of World Prematurity Awareness Month, our Community Outreach teams across our Women’s Hospital Neonatal services share how they have been helping babies to return home to parents.  Pre-term babies that visit our Neonatal Unit are often unable to go home with parents straight after they are born because of their dependency on hospital care and equipment like oxygen therapy and feeding tubes (nasogastric intubation). Our clinicians have been working hard to wean sick babies off feeding ‘nasogastric’ tubes and oxygen therapy safely, through consistent monitoring, parent training, support and transitional care.  Premature babies that visit our neonatal services often cannot drink milk as they are too tired to do so and need the extra support of tube feeding to aid their growth and support nutrition. Oxygen therapy is also important to help babies regain the strength needed to stay awake when being fed. Being able to wean babies off tube feeding will help parents to care for them outside of the hospital, so that they can build those important bonds and establish their own family routines and experiences with less dependency on hospital support.   Our Neonatal Outreach team continues to help support quicker discharge rates for premature babies by training parents on how to use nasogastric feeding tubes so that they can look after their babies from home. Parents are also being oxygen cylinder trained by our Community Outreach team so that they can take oxygen therapy home to support their babies. Every four weeks, our Community Outreach team will visit families to safely wean babies off oxygen and use of 'nasogastric’ tubes, by evaluating their progress and limiting use gradually.   Charley Forde, Neonatal Outreach Sister from our Women’s Hospital said “Babies have been shown to feed better and thrive when returning home, outside of the hospital environment which is why it is really important to share information and training with parents on how to care for their children after being in the hospital.   “Being a new parent is already a challenge and having a baby that has been unwell in hospital can be extremely stressful, once home this can seem incredibly hard to create your own routine outside of a hospital environment and adjust to having your baby at home. Being able to make those experiences less daunting is something that our Neonatal Community Outreach team prides itself on - reaching out to parents who can use a helping hand.” Once the baby’s dependency on feeding tubes lessens, they transition to full oral feeds and the tube is removed by our Neonatal Outreach Team. Baby weight and growth is monitored closely, to ensure they are getting enough nutrition. Oxygen weaning follows a similar process. Oximetry studies help to evaluate oxygen levels so that clinicians can effectively surveil the progress of a baby's health. Outside of the monthly visits, our team also visits regularly with new parents and families, every week to two weeks to offer support and guidance on their transition to life at home. Charley added, “We support the process of family-integrated care by supporting parents to continue caring for their baby in their own environment with the ongoing advice and support of our Neonatal Community Outreach Team. We want to help so many more parents have this privilege of early discharge and to reduce the amount of time that their baby spends on the Neonatal Unit at our Women’s Hospital.”  We want to promote bonding and for parents to feel confident at home by having the advice and support of a Neonatal Community Outreach Team.   We’d like to say thank you to our fantastic Neonatal Community Outreach team for speaking with us across the World Prematurity Awareness Month. Our lights shone ‘proudly purple’ last week at our Women’s Hospital to commemorate all of the truly inspiring and ambitious things that you do to reunite families outside of our services.   See all posts Back to top of page Print this page Email this page Site map Search articles Archives 2021 November (12) October (14) September (17) August (5) July (2) June (7) May (10) April (4) March (10) February (9) January (9) 2020 2019 2018 2017 Major building works Leading the way nationally and globally Annual General Meeting News Talk BWC Vision and Values Media Centre Board of Directors Sarah-Jane Marsh - ten years as Chief Executive Our Council of Governors Publications and reports Our rich history Freedom of Information Terms and conditions Women's charity Children's charity Contact details Birmingham Women's Hospital Mindelsohn Way Birmingham B15 2TG 0121 472 1377 Birmingham Children's Hospital Steelhouse Lane Birmingham B4 6NH 0121 333 9999 Quick links Terms and conditions Give us your feedback Publications and reports Staff links AccessAble Freedom of Information Privacy Policy Join us on social media Support us Birmingham Women's and Children's © 2021 Powered by VerseOne Group Ltd