It’s very distressing to be told when you’re pregnant that your baby has to be born prematurely (too early) for his own safety, and will have to spend time being looked after in an incubator until he is strong enough to go home. This is so different from every parent’s dream of having a healthy baby with no medical problems. Even though it’s not your fault, you may feel that you have let your baby down.
The good news is that once your baby is born, there are important things you can do to give her the best chance of growing strong and well. You can:
- give your baby lots of time snuggled against your bare skin
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- give your baby breastmilk to drink, even if she is not big enough to breastfeed directly
Both drinking breastmilk and having lots of skin-to-skin contact make a real difference to how well a premature baby does.
To get an idea what it will be like once your baby is born prematurely or sick, you can watch this overview of the Small Wonders DVD. Once the DVD is finished you will be able to view it on our website.