Empowering NICU Parents Podcast Life After NICU With a Medically Complex Child: What is the Reality? Part II

If you are getting ready to bring your baby home from the NICU or you have a child who has complex medical needs, this episode is for you! Being a parent is difficult, but when you have a sick child or one that requires extensive medical care, therapies, and appointments, it can dramatically change your life and that of your family. Today we continue to spotlight some of the difficulties, stresses, and struggles of parents who have children with complex medical needs.

We discuss the importance of parents working with a professional therapist to work through their grief and trauma. We review how crucial self-care is but discuss the need for it to be adaptable to your family’s lifestyle and to recognize that “chronically ill children have chronically stressed parents.” Tune in to listen as my guest, Alissa MacDonald bravely shares personal experience, knowledge, and advice as a mother of a child with complex medical needs.

Alissa and her husband Matt became foster parents and they ultimately adopted Tegan, a former 24 weeker who spent months in the NICU. And sadly, since his discharge from the NICU, he has been ridden with multiple complications, several life threatening scares, PICU admissions, and debilitating diagnoses including but not limited to reactive airway, cerebral palsy and autism.

We discuss the importance of finding a therapist and how they can help you cope and work through your trauma. Alissa identifies ways that parents of chronically ill children can participate in adaptable self care and she speaks to the importance of finding the right support group or community that fulfills you. We also discuss how difficult it can be when your significant other processes trauma and stress differently than you. But most importantly, we share that as a parent of a child with complex medical needs that it’s simply okay to say, that you’re not okay.

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Empowering NICU Parents Podcast

A podcast specifically meant to educate and empower NICU parents as they endure their baby’s NICU journey. We provide you with tangible tips and support from my unique perspective as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP) and a proud preemie Mama! Along with sharing answers to the NICU medical questions you have, Nicole will address and support you through the incredibly difficult emotional struggles that only a NICU parent can understand. Tune in and subscribe today!

To start 2024 out, our first episode focuses on marijuana use, its impact on pregnancy, the growing fetus and the child’s future development, as well as the implications of its use during breastfeeding.

Who would have thought that in 2024, we would be living in a time where marijuana use is so prominent and that it would be legal in 24 states as of January of 2024?!?

But, nonetheless, here we are! Because marijuana has been legalized in so many states, there are now false evolving perceptions on its general safety as well as its implications on the developing fetus and infant who are exposed to it either in utero or through breastmilk. In general, the perception of harm from marijuana is decreasing while the potency of marijuana is scarily increasing. Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug during pregnancy in the United States. And, its use in gaining speed amongst all adult age groups, in both sexes, and in pregnant women.

For our 56th episode, I reviewed the most up-to-date literature and will share the findings from several studies that reveal both short and long-term negative effects on the pregnant mother and developing fetus if used during pregnancy, and its future implications on the growing infant, child, and their transition into the teenage years, and as an adult after prenatal exposure. I will also point out the general concentration of marijuana in breast milk if used by a nursing mother, as well as how long it stays in the breast milk, and how it may impact the exposed infant.

This episode is packed full of useful information and will be ideal for any healthcare worker or for family members and friends who care about a pregnant woman or nursing mother who is currently using marijuana and want to ensure that she is fully educated on the implications of its use on her growing fetus or infant. And last, but actually, the most important, I encourage ALL women who are either considering becoming pregnant or who are currently pregnant and use marijuana on a regular basis, to listen.

Although marijuana use is so prevelant, it is so crucial that we fully understand its potential impact on the fetus and the child’s future development if used during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.
You will not want to miss this one!

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