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Parenting Your Premature Baby and Child: The Emotional Journey

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Authors: Deborah L. Davis, Mara Tesler Stein
Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$29.95~~
Buy Used: $8.59
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Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 928
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.7

ISBN: 1555915116
Dewey Decimal Number: 618.92011
UPC: 757739051161
EAN: 9781555915117
ASIN: 1555915116

Publication Date: June 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Very good condition. Clean and crisp pages. Minimum wear to cover edges. Ship with delivery confirmation within one business day of receiving payment.

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•	Preemies: The Essential Guide for Parents of Premature Babies
•	The Premature Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Premature Baby from Birth to Age One (Sears, William, Sears Parenting Library.)
•	The Preemie Parents' Companion: The Essential Guide to Caring for Your Premature Baby in the Hospital, at Home, and Through the First Years
•	Your Premature Baby and Child
•	Your Premature Baby: The First Five Years

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The premature birth of your baby or babies is a medical crisis. But more than that, it is a family crisis. When your baby* is born too soon, you must face not only the medical aspects of prematurity but also the many emotional aspects of parenting your premature baby. During hospitalization, after homecoming, and perhaps throughout childhood, there are three overarching, emotionally intense challenges you face: P1) Coping with feelings, which includes moving through your grief, adjusting, and coming to terms with your baby's premature birth and its consequences P2) Developing your parental identity, which includes feeling connected to your baby, playing an indispensable role in the NICU, and becoming the kind of parent you want to be P3) Managing your relationships, which includes communicating with your partner, with other family members and friends, and with your baby's health care providers PThis book addresses all these challenges, and more. PIndeed, this book rides on the crest of a new wave. In recent years, neonatology has become much more than medical technology. Along with providing state-of-the-art interventions, more and more NICUs are also providing developmentally supportive care to babies-and to their parents. Developmentally supportive care for a premature baby consists of close contact with the parents and being surrounded by the muted, gentle, nurturing conditions that mimic the womb. Developmentally supportive care for parents consists of honoring their need to get physically close and feel emotionally connected to their newborn and become confident in taking care of this baby. In other words, developmentally supportive care tries to give babies and parents what they've been promised. PInstead of banishing parents to waiting rooms or allowing them to merely look through a plate-glass window, modern NICU policy welcomes parents as integral members of their baby's NICU caregiving team and considers parental involvement paramount-good for the babies, good for the parents, good for the family. Indeed, when parents are given opportunities to be close to their baby and are encouraged and coached in caregiving, they can become attuned, responsive, and sure with their little one. When parents are informed about their baby's conditions and treatments, they can advocate for their baby's needs. When parents are supported emotionally, they can be more emotionally available to their baby. These positive, connective emotional experiences between parent and baby contribute to optimal infant development. This book reflects and accompanies the emerging respect for the developmental needs of the entire family and the spreading philosophy of family-centered care. PThere are many good books that explain your premature baby's medical conditions, developmental diagnoses, treatments, and procedures, and that guide you in caregiving tasks. This book is different. It focuses on your experiences, feelings, and relationships around the delivery, hospitalization, homecoming, and long-term parenting of your premature baby and child. It provides suggestions and support for coping, adjusting, and finding your way. It focuses on how you can deal with the challenges you meet so you can revel in the pleasures of nurturing and cherishing your little one. With quotes from many parents, this book also strives to provide you with the comfort of knowing that your reactions make sense and that you're not alone. PWhile every family's journey is unique, you share many of the same hopes, fears, joys, sorrows, struggles, and triumphs with other parents of premature babies. It is our hope that you will find comfort, reassurance, support, and strength in these pages. P*Usually it is awkward to refer to both singleton and multiple babies in the same sentence by writing "baby or babies" or even "baby(ies) and "child(ren)." So most of the time, we just refer to "your baby" or "your child." If you gave birth to twins, triplets, or more, please know that whenever applicable to your situation, "your baby" or "child" means "your babies" or "children." POrganizing this book was very challenging. There is a time line to follow, but the three overarching themes of "coping with feelings," "developing your parental identity," and "managing your relationships" come up at every turn. At any point on your personal journey, you may feel emotionally overwhelmed, your growth and development as a parent and a person continues, and you will be dealing with your partner, your baby's health care providers, and others. Since books are naturally linear and don't take well to any other arrangements, we encourage you to weave your way through this book to match the nonlinear path your experience of having a preemie takes. Some sections may feel more appropriate than others at different times, depending on your unique situation, your personality, and where you are in your journey. Use the Table of Contents and the Index to find your currently pressing concerns. PAs you weave your way through the book, you can also peek ahead into the future for preparation and reassurance, or review the past for validation, affirmation, and to make sense of where you've been and where you are. Take in whatever seems helpful and pass by whatever isn't. Return to the passages that are particularly comforting and try reading other parts later. It is not necessary to read this book through from start to finish. Even if you do read it cover to cover and then put it away, we encourage you to revisit this book from time to time. You'll notice that what you need will stand out every time, and what you need will always seem to be different. This book is meant to be your companion, and it will follow your lead. PIf reading this book moves you to cry, try to accept this reaction. These are healing tears of grief and joy, courage and strength that mix with those of other parents. You are not alone.

Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

This book helped keep me sane during the weeks in the NICU December 10, 2008
This book and the help of my family are what kept me sane during my daughter's 6 week stay in the NICU (and beyond). I found this to be an invaluable resource to help me deal with the wild emotional swings that occur as the parent of a preemie. I am a physician and personally recommend this book to everyone I know who delivers a premature child. This book definitely deserves a 5 star rating.

5 out of 5 stars

Every NICU should recommend this for parents November 17, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Don't be daunted by the book's hefty size! This was without a doubt the most useful book of all that I referenced during our two months in the NICU. Other books explain all of the technology, procedures, etc., but this one covers the mental and emotional side of the NICU - handling the one-step-forward-two-steps-back preemie dance, grief at the premature birth experience, anxieties about care, worries for the future, feelings about separation and having others taking care of your child, and the hesitancy in parenting with so many barriers in the way. This book was invaulable during the hospital experience and has been such a help in the homecoming experience. Already I know that this will take us through the next few years, as it also covers topics regarding developmental issues and what to expect as our child grows. In addition to the advice in the book, there are quotes throughout from other preemie parents who have handled all of these issues. This was one book that didn't manage to have anything to scare us; rather it validated all of the feelings we've had. The health care professionals with whom we have shared this book were impressed and wanted their own copies! I can't recommend this book highly enough!

5 out of 5 stars

Should Get 6 Stars... July 8, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

... since this is the *definitive* book for people like me who've been through this life-changing experience. And as an avid reader who's already bought many other Preemie books, I sure don't say WOW lightly.br /br /As other reviewers noted, I too wish I had come across this resource much much sooner. Our 30 week twins spent 8+ verrrrrry stressful weeks in the NICU. The months following their joyful homecoming was (and still is) constantly colored by awareness vigilance re: issues related to their prematurity.br /br /In particular, this book does a terrific job of validating acknowledging a parent's feelings that only other families who've been through this journey are going to "get it". I felt like the book often like that song... somebody to lean on. br /

5 out of 5 stars

Good therapy August 29, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This book was very helpful to me and my husband. We had a long NICU stay of 9 weeks and felt like we were the only ones in the unit who wasn't in and out. This book caters to people like us who had to deal with the on-going, never-ending days of procedures, tests, emotional ups and downs, and disappointments. I was really able to prepare myself for discharge with the chapters about homecoming. The best part of this book was that we didn't feel so alone.

5 out of 5 stars

Well-rounded and thorough compendium of vital information September 11, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

A 902-page compendium of information, Parenting Your Premature Baby And Child: The Emotional Journey by developmental psychologist Deborah L. Davis and clinical psychologist Mara Tesler Stein addresses dealing with powerful and painful emotions associated with being the parent of a premature child, physical recovery from difficult childbirth, forming bonds with one's baby when it must be kept in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), dealing with the difficulties of discharge, homecoming, and settling in, observing one's child for evidence of disabilities and coping with them, and also, how to deal with the loss of a child. Parenting Your Premature Baby And Child presents the wisdom of experts in no-nonsense terms for lay people and parents. An extensive index allows for quick reference, in this well-rounded and thorough compendium of vital information.br /

Copyright 2007 White Hat Communications.
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