Each year, the U.S. sees more than 380,000 babies who are born prematurely, or before 37 weeks into the pregnancy. While the rate of preterm birth in the U.S. has been, alarmingly, on the rise for two years running according to research by the March of Dimes, advances in medical care are helping these tiny patients grow and thrive. In many cases, premature babies will spend days, weeks, or months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU, where they are monitored and cared for around the clock.

Advances in care

Everything in the NICU is designed around the unique needs of these patients. Premature babies are often unable to thrive in a standard newborn crib and are kept in incubator beds, which protect them from the outside environment and can regulate temperature and humidity — important for the babies’ fragile skin. In these beds, babies are monitored and treated for a variety of conditions, the most common including respiratory distress, lung disease, jaundice and other development issues. Parents who were eager to wrap their newborns in sweaters and swaddles have to wait as their tiny babies are often kept in only a diaper. “Premature skin is very fragile, depending on how many weeks early the baby was delivered,” says Lindsey Greene Stough, a NICU Nurse who has been caring for premature babies for nearly 10 years, adding that frequent diaper changes help to keep skin dry and prevent the skin from breaking down.

Diaper-maker Pampers has a 40-plus-year history of partnering with NICUs on addressing the needs of premature babies. As smaller and smaller babies were being introduced to the NICU environment, Pampers recognized that traditional diapers were not always developmentally appropriate for the tiniest babies. Its latest innovation, the NICU Flat Diaper, is designed specifically for babies whose skin is too delicate for even the smallest diapers.

Parents who were eager to wrap their newborns in sweaters and swaddles have to wait as their tiny babies are often kept in only a diaper.

The NICU Flat Diaper functions as a diaper, keeping babies clean and dry by absorbing waste into the core of the pad, away from the skin. The pad, which can lay completely flat, allows for extra airflow to the delicate skin, and can support babies during medical treatments like phototherapy, where a traditional diaper might hinder treatment effectiveness.

Helping the littlest fighters

For parents of a premature baby, the road to health and discharge from the hospital can feel confusing and overwhelming, but the staff of the NICU is there to both care for the patients and guide the parents. “The role of the NICU nurse is to introduce the NICU environment and the plan of care for the child,” says Stough. She explains to parents that being in the NICU is like a rollercoaster, complete with ups and downs along the way. “We have to prepare parents for both what they want to see and what they could see over the course of helping their child,” she says.

In the early days of the NICU, worries over the transfer of infections such as staphylococcus encouraged the isolation of premature babies, leaving them with little to no contact with the parents or families. Now, visiting policies in NICUs encourage involvement of the whole family. For example, encouraging the bond between mother and baby through practices like skin-to-skin contact is recognized as a beneficial tactic in premature care. The NICU staff is there to help mothers and fathers learn how to hold their tiny babies, especially if they’re attached to monitors and tubes for their treatment.

Celebrating milestones

Stough acknowledges that work in the NICU is often challenging and emotional, but the rewards are sweet. “Seeing a baby thrive and grow is really great,” she says, “but I love seeing the parents’ growth over the course of a NICU experience. They have seen the child fight, and they go from being scared and overwhelmed themselves to becoming warrior parents.” To help these premature patients and their caregivers, Pampers is making their NICU Flat Diapers available to every NICU in the country so that nurses and babies can start seeing the benefits of this latest innovation.