ABCs of NICU Life – Neonatal Unit

We know it can be difficult getting use to the medical and nursing language in the neonatal unit. We hope this little library will help to give you a better understanding. There is also a helpful list at the back of your NICU Journal.

Anaemia	A low red blood cell count
ANNP	Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner
Antibiotics	A medication given to help fight either a suspected or proven infection
Apgar score	A simple way of checking a baby’s health immediately after birth, by scoring ‘points’ for heart rate, breathing, skin colour, tone and the baby’s reactions
Apnoea	A pause in breathing
Blood Gases	This is a small blood test done via a heel prick to find out more information about your baby’s health. One of the main functions of this test is to measure the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide gases and acids in the blood. Medical staff do this to work out how well the lungs and circulation are functioning, and to make sure any breathing help they are getting is working well
Bradycardia	A term for when baby’s heart rate drops lower than normal
Breast Pump	A piece of equipment that is used for expressing breast milk
Cannula	A very small, short, soft plastic tube that is put into a baby’s vein to give fluids or medicines straight into the bloodstream
‘Cares’	This is what nurses refer to when changing your baby’s nappy, eye care, mouth care etc. This normally happens every 6 hours
Cerebral Function Monitor (CFM)	A machine that looks at the background electrical activity in the brain
Chest Drain	A tube passed through the chest wall into the space between the lungs and the ribs, to drain air or fluid
Chronic Lung Disease (CLD)	Long-term breathing and lung problems in premature babies. It is also known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Chronic lung disease is a serious complication of prematurity resulting from poor lung growth and lung injury
Cooling mattress	A cooling jacket is used to reduce baby’s temperature to around 33.5 degrees. This is used as a treatment in Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure)	A type of breathing support that delivers constant pressure into the baby’s nose and lower airways. This allows the air sacs in their lungs to remain open and make it easier for them to breathe
Cup Feeding	Is a method of feeding that can be used as an alternative to breastfeeding if the baby in unable to feed, which will not cause ‘nipple confusion’
Desaturation ‘Desat’	A drop in oxygen levels
Developmental care	This is about making the baby’s surroundings as stress free as possible to help improve how your baby develops over time. This is done in several ways, by: – Creating a ‘nest’ to nurse a baby, which makes them feel more comfortable and secure – Involving parents in caring for their baby on the unit and encouraging ‘Kangaroo Care’ (having skin-to-skin with your baby) – Reading/speaking/singing to your baby – Reducing the amount of light and noise that the baby is exposed to. The staff might cover the incubator with a sheet or cover
Donor Expressed Breast Milk (DEBM)	Donor milk is breastmilkexpressedand donated by a mother that is then processed by a donor milk bank to be given to your baby under specific circumstances.
DUOPAP	A type of breathing support delivered by face mask or prongs which is similar to CPAP
ECG Leads	Leads that are connected to sticky pads on your baby’s chest which provides a graphic representation of the heart rate and electrical activity
Extubating / Extubation	Removing the Endotracheal Tube (ET) (breathing tube) from the baby’s mouth and coming off the ventilator
Family-Integrated Care or FICare	This is a principle which ultimately means involving families directly in decision-making about their baby’s care and in delivering their baby’s care. Good FICare creates a welcoming environment for parents, meets their physical and emotional needs, provides great education for parents and staff and also provides psychological and emotional support. A unit successfully delivering FICare will lead to parents who go home fulfilled, and prepared
Gestation	The number of weeks since the conception of a fetus / baby. E.g. Full term = 37 – 40 weeks gestation
Grunting	A noise made by a baby who has difficulty breathing and is using extra energy
Heated mattress	A special mattress on which the temperature can be adjusted to help your baby maintain their temperature without needing to be inside an incubator
HFNC (High Flow Nasal Cannulae)	Where warm, moist air flows into your baby’s lungs through small tubes (called nasal cannulae) in their nose to help them breathe
High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation (HFOV)	A type of breathing support on a ventilator which wobbles or vibrates the chest at a fast rate. Usually, babies will be managed with this mode if the breathing difficulty is very severe
Humidity	To prevent premature babies losing too much water through their skin, they are often cared for in warm, humidified incubators. This is why there is sometimes mist on incubators. Humidity (water) is also added to the gases the baby breathes through the ventilator, CPAP or high-flow machines
Hypoglycemia	A low blood glucose level
Incubator oxygen	A way of giving oxygen directly to your baby in the incubator
Inotrope	A medicine used to support blood pressure
Intravenous Fluids (IV Fluids)	Fluid containing sugar and sometimes salts, pumped into the blood stream to help baby when they are unable to feed
Intraventricular Haemorrhage (IVH)	Bleeding into the fluid chambers (ventricles) of the brain. IVH’s are graded 1-4 according to size and are found on an ultrasound scan. Grade 1 bleeds are minor and grade 4 bleeds more significant
Intubated	A breathing tube is passed through baby’s mouth, into the main breathing tube (trachea) and then this is connected to a ventilator to help them breathe
Jaundice	A yellowness of the skin and/or whites of the eyes caused by a high level of bilirubin in the blood. It is very common in babies, and is usually caused by the normal breakdown of the baby’s red blood cells. We manage higher levels with phototherapy (shining blue light onto the baby’s skin)
Keeping Mum’s and Babies Together (KMBT)	We try to minimise separation from your baby when possible. We may be able to facilitate care on the postnatal ward, in our transitional care unit, or at home
Long line or PICC line	This is a very fine, longer cannula that is put into a vein with the end of the line in a large blood vessel close to the heart. It is also sometimes called a central line. These lines are used to give the baby nutrition directly into a vein. They can also be used for medication
Low flow oxygen	A way of giving small amounts of oxygen to babies though nasal cannula (small prongs in the nose)
MEBM (Maternal Expressed Breast Milk)	Expressing breast milk means to use a pump, hands, or both to extract milk from a mother’s breasts. The milk can be stored in the fridge, freezer or given directly to baby
Nasogastric Tube (NGT) Feeding	A long, thin, soft plastic tube that goes from your baby’s nose to their tummy. This is used to give milk to your baby until they are big/well enough to feed
Necrotising Enterocolitis (NEC)	A serious condition in which the bowel becomes inflamed. Babies can become incredibly ill as their bodies try to heal the inflamed tissues. Babies can die from NEC. The illness may be less severe but causes sections of the bowel tissue to die and/or leak. This would require surgery. When a baby is unwell with NEC, the doctors will rest their bowel (no milk) and give antibiotics
Neopuff	This is a mini-manual ventilator, used with a face mask placed gently on baby’s face
Nitric oxide	A gas that can be given via a ventilator to make the blood vessels in the lungs relax and hope to improve blood flow to the lungs. This should in turn improve baby’s oxygen levels
Oedema	Swelling caused by fluid in the tissues under the skin
Oxygen saturation	This is measured by placing a probe on the hand or foot of the baby. This can measure the amount of oxygen flowing through the baby’s blood vessels
Oxygenation Study (sometimes called a sleep study)	This is a test for babies to understand if they need the ongoing support of oxygen at home, while their lungs continue to grow. The study is used to measure the background oxygen saturations of baby and look for desaturations. Usually the study will happen over a period of 12 hours and must include a period when the baby is in quiet sleep, as this is the time that the body’s oxygen levels are usually at their lowest. A study can be carried out in air to see if oxygen is needed, or in oxygen, to see if this is enough for baby
Parental Nutrition (PN)	Nutrition given directly into the bloodstream. The liquid contains sugars, proteins, fats and vitamins
Respiratory Rate	How many breaths your baby takes in a minute
Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP)	This is a complication of prematurity in which the blood vessels at the back of the eye grow in a more tortuous manner. In some cases, ROP requires eye injection or laser treatment by an eye doctor (ophthalmologist) and could mean your baby needs to be re-ventilated for a short time (usually overnight)
Suction	A suction catheter (long plastic tube) is used to clear secretions from an ET tube, mouth or nose
Tachycardia	When your baby has a fast heartbeat
Tachypnoea	When your baby breathes quickly
Temperature skin probe	A small probe that is put on the skin to measure the baby’s temperature.
Umbilical Arterial Line	This is a plastic tube that sits in a blood vessel travelling from the umbilical cord. The tip sits very close to the heart. This allows for monitoring of blood gases and blood sampling as well as being used for continuous blood pressure monitoring
Ventilator	This is a machine that breathes for your baby when they cannot breathe well enough on their own. A baby is connected to the ventilator by an endotracheal tube (ET), which is a plastic tube that is placed into the windpipe, through the mouth
X-Ray	A picture of organs, tissues or bones in the body