Caring for Your Premature Baby

by Jill Alison Ganon and Alan Klein

The premature birth of a baby often takes parents by surprise, leaving them unprepared for the puzzling emotions and medical complications that may follow early deliveries. Caring for Your Premature Baby is a comprehensive and reassuring look at everything from state of the art medical information, to the incredible importance of a parent1s loving touch. It shows parents how to work with the healthcare team in providing their baby with the very best...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062736205
• ISBN13: 9780062736208
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A reliable source of informatrion presented realistically

As the mom of 29 week twins, this book filled in the gaps when the NICU staff didn't have the time (or if I wasn't ready to hear all the details). It allowed us the time to read the details and think of our questions before approaching our nurses. We knew in advance that our twins would be early and we skimmed the book to get a handle of what might be to come. It was frightening but prepared us for what we were to experience and it was realistic (difficult to read in some sections but true to life). This is not a book for those expecting a pre-term infant (or I advise you only to read the chapters aiming at this gestational age). It is aimed at those with quite premature babies. Our boys ran the gamut of what was described here - some were only scares (thankfully) but others crashed into our lives including a diagnoses at 6 mths of age of cerebral palsy. This is the realities of prematurity and you need to be prepared that this might happen to your child when making decisions for them.

Good Source of Information for Parents of Preemies

While this book was at times difficult to read, it was very informative and helped fill in the gaps between our daily talks with the NICU pediatricians. It's suited for both the parents of preemies (34 weeks or less) or pre-term babies (34-36 weeks); there is a chapter dedicated to the latter, and much of the material is applicable to both. Hopefully you'll never have a need for this book, but if you do it's a good one.

Hope and information for parents of premature babies!

This book offers a comprehensive guide for the complexities facing parents' of premature infants. It is a marvelously optimistic and understanding presentation of the challenges and opportunities for surmounting them written for families' experiencing the birth and care of premature infants. Active participation of parents' in the often unfamiliar setting of the intensive care nursery is guided and encouraged by the authors, one of whom has specialized in the care of premature infants for more than 25 years. Strategies for coping with this emotional and complex life event are discussed with a rare combination of empathy and medically accurate detail. Ways in which parents and families can be advocates for their infants both in the nursery and later at home are presented by mothers and fathers, in their own words, who have cared for their own premature babies. Sources of support for parents are recounted by the authors and within these parents' stories. I highly recommend this book to families seeking reassurance and accessible knowledge about the changes and adjustments accompanying premature birth.

Excellent reference, yet very personal

As a mom on bedrest for preterm labor, this book helped me to be more emotionally prepared and more medically informed for what lies ahead. That knowledge has to be beneficial to the baby! I appreciated the frankness of the possibilities, and "the odds" that this or that complication may occur. I'm sure that it would also be very helpful for parents without prior knowledge of a preterm delivery, as that is more of the point of view in which the book is written.

A caring and sensitive treatment of a difficult subject

If nothing else, the dedication by the authors should be a major clue that this isn't the cookie cutter process exploiting a sensitive subject. Clear, crisp and accessable.