One of the hardest things for a parent of a premature baby in the NICU, aside from worrying about their child’s very fragile and unstable condition, is that their baby has to spend a majority of their first few months alone without much contact with Mom and Dad.
In 2001, Yamile Jackson gave birth to her son Zachary 12 weeks premature, and at just two pounds, he would have to spend 155 days in the NICU. Jackson spent as much time as possible at the hospital, but it never felt like enough when she had to pack up her things and leave her baby every night. Worst of all, she was heartbroken that she couldn’t hold him and show him know how much he was loved, so Jackson, a PhD in ergonomics and human factors engineering, started thinking of a way she could ‘hold’ him when she was gone.
Jackson filled gardening gloves with beans, and would cuddle them during the day so they would smell like her, and gently started tucking them against her tiny baby boy at night. The nurses were amazed as they cared for the babies, and noticed that baby Zachary had less breathing and heart problems than any other baby in the NICU.
“You know those little gloves that you made for Zack?” the nurse asked when they called Jackson, “Can you make them for the rest of the unit?” Skin-to-skin contact, also known as ‘Kangaroo care‘, has been proven to help regulate a baby’s heart rate, temperature, and breathing, as well as reduce pain, improve sleep quality, and lower risk of infections, and the ‘Zaky gloves‘ seemed to have this effect on the babies, especially if they carried the mother’s scent.
“A lot of our tiny babies need to be positioned so that they don’t get frog legs, flat heads and things like that. We can use [The Zaky] to position them into a nice, neutral position,” University of Kentucky neonatologist Dr. Lori Shook said.
“One of the things that’s really difficult for a baby in the NICU is to get sleep … A lot of the small ones frequently will stop breathing because they are neurologically not mature. But with a Zaky, particularly one that the mother has scented, those spells will decrease, and that allows the baby to get better sleep. And sleep is when the brain grows.”
Can you believe how effective the Zaky is at helping premature babies thrive? Let us know what you think in the comments below, and please SHARE this with parents who’s child could benefit from this mom’s genius invention.
[Featured Image: NURTURED BY DESIGN]
Mom’s Genius Invention Helps Preemie Babies Thrive is an article from: LifeDaily