Resources | Factsheets

These resources are designed to support clinicians and parents in the care of neonates.

Making a nest for your newborn in the hospital setting

Exploring the parent journey in the neonatal unit

Please read the disclaimer prior to printing the documents.

Books for bubs in the NICU

Books for Bubs in the NICU aims to support families during their time in the NICU with their babies. The program was developed by Arona Gibbons after her twin grandsons, Bodhi and Jarrah were born at 26 weeks gestation and spent their first months of life in the NICU. 

During their initial time in the NICU, holding and touching the boys was almost impossible for their parents, and so they started reading, talking and singing to them. Arona and the boy’s parents, Taycee and Owen could see that using their voices helped to settle the boys when they were having a hard day and helped to build their bond as a family.

Very sadly, Bodhi passed away at just one month old, but the memories the family were able to create with him by reading and singing to him is something they will treasure forever. Jarrah went on to spend two more months at NICU where he was read and sang to as much as possible. His love for books now continues. 

Arona has since started this program and has joined together with Paint the Lake Read, an early literacy program. This program encourages and supports all families to read, talk and sing with their children, in order to support their child’s brain development and strengthen their emotional attachment. 

Like to support the project?

Please note Paint the Town REaD materials are protected under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share A like 3.0 Unported License and cannot be altered or replicated without permission.

Information sheets

Additional resources

Disclaimer

The use of these documents outside The Children's Hospital at Westmead (CHW), or its reproduction in whole or in part, is subject to acknowledgement that it is the property of CHW. CHW has done everything practicable to make this document accurate, current and in accordance with accepted legislation and standards at the date of publication. CHW is not responsible for consequences arising from the use of this document outside CHW. A current version of this document is only available electronically from the Hospital. If this document is printed, it is only valid to the date of printing.

Australian College of Neonatal Nurses (ACNN) - Neuro-developmental Special Interest Group 

The Australian College of Neonatal Nurses (ACNN) have a number of Special Interest Groups (SIG) focused on supporting the application of care in the neonatal setting. One SIG is focused on Neuro-developmental Care (NDC), ACNN members can join the SIG and access a range of resources and education opportunities. The NDC SIG's  focus is to support the provision of family centred and developmentally supportive practices across neonatal settings and to promote consistency in practice and improved neuro-developmental outcomes for vulnerable neonates. The NDC SIG aims to raise awareness in the neonatal setting of developmental care as a conscious individualised practice that is considered a minimum standard of care.

You can find out more at the following website: https://www.acnn.org.au/events/special-interest-group-events/neurodevelopmental-care-sig/

 Publications from the Australasian NIDCAP Training Centre 

The following articles have been published by members of our NIDCAP Training Centre Team:

2019

2020