Have you ever heard the term infant mental health? On this podcast episode, we discuss how you, as a parent or caregiver of an infant, can positively shape and support a baby’s early social and emotional skills so they are able to build long-lasting connections in the future! You will not want to miss this episode if you are a NICU parent or member of the NICU care team - it is one of my favorite episodes we’ve done so far!

On today’s podcast, I am joined by Katie Ross, a Certified Neonatal Occupational Therapist. She is very passionate about positively fostering the development of our specialized NICU population from the earliest stage of life. 

We discuss infant mental health, what it actually means, and how it applies to our high risk NICU population. We as NICU caregivers in close collaboration with the parents have the ability to positively change the trajectory of the developmental outcomes for our NICU babies. Katie and I are both very passionate about parental involvement and engagement. Together, we discuss tips and offer words of encouragement for parents and NICU care team members on ways we can support, educate, and empower NICU parents to become actively engaged in their infant’s daily cares including skin-to-skin care!

The theme we focus on is simplicity! Plain and simple, parents of a NICU baby need to be involved, they are the therapy for their infant! Tune in to learn ways we can all work together to foster and encourage parental support and involvement! Studies have shown that parental engagement actually influences the neurobiology of the infant’s brain and promotes physiological changes in the parents as well - meaning, with parental contact during skin-to-skin care, levels of oxytocin increase which reduces stress and facilitates increased feelings of comfort and attachment, and leads to positive physiological stability in both the baby and the parents! So please, do not underestimate your role as parents, even if your baby is in the NICU! Continue listening as we educate, guide and empower you to work through your grief, trauma, and fear so you can simply love on your baby. 

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