Hurting While Helping? The Paradox of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Louise Hainline
Sharon Krinsky-McHale
Infant Study Center
Brooklyn College of CUNY

Citation: Hainline, Louise and Sharon Krinsky-McHale (1994). "Hurting While Helping? The Paradox of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit." Children's Environments 11 (2): 37-65. Retrieved [date] from http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/

Read this Article (PDF) | Comment on this Article

Abstract

Survival rates of very low birth weight infants have improved dramatically over the last few decades, primarily as a result of medical and technological advances techniques have shaped a special hospital environment for high-risk infants, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The NICU's environment has been customized to maximize infant survival rates, yet concern is growing that the modern, high technology NICU environment can be detrimental to the infant's long-term physiological and social development, and may actually slow the rate of growth and recovery from illness. This article reviews some of the literature on the characteristics of the modern NICU environment and how it might be made less problematic for infant development. To illustrate the possible adverse aspects of the NICU, the article discusses the possibility of phototoxic effects from NICU lighting conditions. As a subsidiary issue, the article also discusses some of the potential benefits of adding handling and therapeutic touch to the care routines for NICU patients to illustrate how the typical NICU regimen might be improved.

Keywords: NICU, premature infants, phototoxicity, infant stimulation