Septicemia in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Over the Past 15 Years

The end of the story is all you care about. So, let’s get that out of the way first. Penelope Jane was born on March 23rd. She was healthy. The trauma of that day still resonates within my body, called into being through subsequent visits to the hospital and a review of my own medical records from that day. A life-threatening fever and 9 hours of pushing led to a powerfully negative birth experience, one that I am consistently told to just forget. After she had a weeklong stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), I have a healthy daughter. In this article, I use auto/archeology as a tool to examine my own medical records and the affective traces of my experience in the hospital to call into question Halberstam’s advocacy of forgetting as queer resistance to dominant cultural logics. While Halberstam explains that “forgetting allows for a release from the weight of the past and the menace of the future” I hold tightly to my memories of that day. This article marks the disconnects between an advocacy of forgetting and my own failure of childbirth and offers a new perspective that embraces the queer potentiality of remembering trauma.

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Early Intubation and MAS

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.87.2.269a ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 87 (2) ◽

pp. 269-269

Author(s):

THOMAS E. WISWELL

Keyword(s):

Intensive Care Unit ◽

Intensive Care ◽

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit ◽

Neonatal Intensive Care ◽

Upper Airway ◽

Meconium Aspiration Syndrome ◽

Meconium Aspiration ◽

The Past ◽

Early Intubation

In Reply.— I appreciate the comments of Dr Traverse. His opinions and practices closely reflect my own. I, too, am unaware of proven long-term sequelae which can be attributed directly to intubating meconium-stained infants once or twice.1 Additionally, I attempt to remove meconium from the upper airway in all meconium-stained infants, be they vigorous or healthy, or the meconium thick or thin. During the past 5 years, fully one third of infants with the meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS) admitted to our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit had not been intubated and had their tracheae suctioned.

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The Psychosocial Aspects of Feeding in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Beyond

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups ◽

10.1044/2019_persp-19-00097 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (6) ◽

pp. 1507-1515

Author(s):

Lauren L. Madhoun ◽

Robert Dempster

Keyword(s):

Intensive Care Unit ◽

Intensive Care ◽

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit ◽

Hospital Discharge ◽

Neonatal Intensive Care ◽

Oral Feeding ◽

Medical Attention ◽

Primary Role ◽

Speech Language Pathologists ◽

The Family

Purpose Feeding challenges are common for infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). While sufficient oral feeding is typically a goal during NICU admission, this can be a long and complicated process for both the infant and the family. Many of the stressors related to feeding persist long after hospital discharge, which results in the parents taking the primary role of navigating the infant's course to ensure continued feeding success. This is in addition to dealing with the psychological impact of having a child requiring increased medical attention and the need to continue to fulfill the demands at home. In this clinical focus article, we examine 3 main areas that impact psychosocial stress among parents with infants in the NICU and following discharge: parenting, feeding, and supports. Implications for speech-language pathologists working with these infants and their families are discussed. A case example is also included to describe the treatment course of an infant and her parents in the NICU and after graduation to demonstrate these points further. Conclusion Speech-language pathologists working with infants in the NICU and following hospital discharge must realize the family context and psychosocial considerations that impact feeding progression. Understanding these factors may improve parental engagement to more effectively tailor treatment approaches to meet the needs of the child and family.

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