Coming Home from the NICU: A Guide for Supporting Families in Early Infant Care and Development

For families of an infant leaving the NICU, nothing’s more exciting—and challenging—than the critical transition to home life with their baby. Support the NICU-to-home transition with this accessible book, the complete guide to helping parents meet their baby’s special needs and promote optimal development in the first year after homecoming.

Invaluable for a wide range of professionals—including early interventionists, OTs, PTs, public health nurses, physicians, and social workers—this book is the key to providing family-centered, developmentally supportive guidance in the months after the NICU. Professionals will deepen their understanding of the emotional and physical challenges of the NICU experience, and they’ll get in-depth guidance on how to support parents effectively as they

• develop a loving and satisfying relationship with their baby
• manage the changes to their daily routines and home environment
• recognize, interpret, and respond to the baby’s signals and behaviors
• actively encourage motor and language development
• support the baby’s management of sleep/wake cycles
• identify concerns about the baby’s development
• learn the timing, intensity, and amount of activity that work for their unique baby
• promote their baby’s self-regulation
• locate and access community resources and social supports

To illuminate the incredible strength of parents of premature infants, the book includes powerful stories of real families who share their experiences of supporting and loving their babies in the NICU and beyond. Readers will also receive printable handouts to share with families—Coming Home: What to Expect; Reading Your Baby’s Cues; Feeding Your Baby; Positioning and Handling Strategies; Communicating With Your Baby; Playing With Your Baby; Helping Your Baby Learn; and more—and lists of resources, websites, and organizations that provide additional information and support.

With this definitive guide from two leading experts in infant development and early intervention, professionals will provide sensitive, effective support and guidance to new parents as they make a smooth transition to home life and develop strong relationships with their babies.

Kathleen A. VandenBerg, Ph.D., is a neonatal development specialist, consultant, author, and trainer for professionals in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and in early intervention programs. She has provided individualized family-centered developmental care for infants and families in the NICU and in the home for more than 30 years.

Currently, she is Academic Administrator in the Department of Pediatrics (Neonatology) at UCSF and Center Director of the West Coast Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) and Assessment of Preterm Infants’ Behavior (APIB) Training Center, where she is a NIDCAP Master Trainer. She also provides training in the Family Infant Relationship Support Training Program (FIRST). Both programs provide support to professionals who care for high-risk newborns who may have experienced altered brain pathway development due to unexpected and overwhelming sensory input in the intensive care nursery.

Marci J. Hanson, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Special Education at San Francisco State University (SFSU). At SFSU, Dr. Hanson is actively engaged in teaching, research, and service related to young children and their families. In addition to these responsibilities, she directs the SFSU joint doctoral program in special education with the University of California, Berkeley, and codirects the early childhood special education graduate program. She is a consultant with the child and adolescent development faculty of the Marian Wright Edelman Institute for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families at SFSU and with San Francisco Head Start.