Introduction
Welcome to the Empowering NICU Parents’ Podcast!
Our podcast is dedicated to supporting, educating, and empowering parents navigating the challenges of having a baby in the NICU.
In this special episode, I’m thrilled to share a replay of my recent guest appearance on Mary Coughlin’s Care Outloud Podcast. It was an incredible honor to join Mary, someone I’ve admired for so long, for a heartfelt and honest discussion about my personal experience as a NICU parent after the premature birth of my son William at 23 weeks. We dive deep into how that experience has transformed my approach to family-centered care, trauma-informed practices, and mental health support for NICU parents. I also share how these experiences have fueled my work as an NNP and Clinical Product Specialist at AngelEye Health. I hope this conversation brings you insight, support, and inspiration!
Mary Coughlin is a globally recognized expert and true legend in neonatal and developmental care, with over 30 years of experience. She is the founder and president of Caring Essentials Collaborative and is a leading advocate for trauma-informed, neuroprotective care in the NICU. As an accomplished author, Mary has contributed extensively to the field, writing numerous publications and books that have shaped the way healthcare professionals approach neonatal care. Her pioneering work continues to make a profound impact, transforming how vulnerable patients and their families are supported in healthcare settings around the world.
In her podcast, Care Outloud, Mary engages in deep, meaningful conversations with thought leaders, healthcare professionals, and NICU advocates who are committed to improving neonatal care. Her typical guests share their personal and professional insights into family-centered, trauma-informed care, creating a platform that fosters connection, support, and innovation in the field.
Navigating Life After the NICU: The Lasting Effects of Prematurity – Empowering NICU Parents Podcast
- Navigating Life After the NICU: The Lasting Effects of Prematurity
- Stronger Together: Nicole Nyberg on NICU Challenges and Family
- Cooper's Legacy: Supporting NICU Families Through the Cooper Steinhauser Foundation
- Cooper's NICU Journey: Honoring a Courageous Life Bolstered by Parental Strength
- Nurturing and Supporting Mental Health in NICU Parents
Episode Sponsors
Dr. Brown’s Medical
Dr. Brown’s Medical strives to deliver valuable infant feeding products and programs to support parents and professionals in providing positive feeding experiences for the infants in their care. Traditional feeding products and practices in the NICU are inconsistent and can result in poor feeding outcomes.
Dr. Brown’s® unique Dr. Brown’s® Zero-Resistance™; nipples with reliable flow rates; and The Infant-Driven Feeding™ are evidence-based, standard-of-care practices that improve infant feeding outcomes.
The team at Dr. Brown’s Medical is available to provide support for you and your team to help achieve best-practice results. They provide 4 free webinars every year on various infant feeding topics and offer continuing education hours for Nurses, Occupational Therapists, and Speech-language Pathologists.
To learn more or speak with Dr. Brown’s Medical team, click HERE.
Our NICU Roadmap
Our NICU Roadmap is the only NICU journal parents will need. Our journal is a great resource for NICU parents with educational content, answers to many of their questions, a full glossary plus specific areas to document their baby’s progress each day while in the NICU. Our NICU Roadmap equips parents with questions to ask their baby’s care team each day as well as a designated place to keep track of their baby’s weight, lab values, respiratory settings, feedings, and the plan of care each day. Most importantly, Our NICU Roadmap guides parents and empowers them so they can confidently become and remain an active member of their baby’s care team.
Our NICU Roadmap is available for purchase on Amazon or contact us at empoweringnicuparents@yahoo.com to order in bulk at a discounted price for your hospital or organization.
Click HERE for additional information and images of Our NICU Roadmap.
NICU Milestone Cards
Capture every incredible moment your baby achieves while in the NICU with these colorful milestone cards.
Each set includes 26 bright, colorful, and unique downloadable milestone cards with a dedicated space for you to write the date your infant achieved each milestone.
Grab a photo with your baby and each milestone card. The photographs will be a great keepsake and with the date in the photo, you will never forget when your baby achieved each milestone.
Mary Coughlin MS, NNP, NCC-E, Caritas Coach®View Mary Coughlin MS, NNP, NCC-E, Caritas Coach®
From Colleagues to Friends
I’ve had the privilege of knowing Mary for years, from speaking at the same conferences to working closely together on the Family-Centered Care (FCC) task force. Throughout this time, my admiration for her dedication to trauma-informed care and her relentless passion for improving the NICU experience has only grown. Mary’s expertise is undeniable, but what stands out the most is her incredible kindness and genuine compassion. She is not only a remarkable leader in the field but also an amazingly kind woman, and I truly appreciate the work she does and the impact she continues to make.
In 2022, I had the privilege of hosting Mary Coughlin on the Empowering NICU Parents’ Podcast, where we discussed trauma-informed care and her pioneering work with Caring Essentials. Mary’s insights into compassionate, neuroprotective care practices in the NICU are invaluable for parents and healthcare providers alike. Listen to the episode!
Caring Essentials Collaborative
Founded by Mary Coughlin, the mission of the Caring Essentials Collaborative is to transform healthcare through education, compassion, and innovation. They are dedicated to empowering clinicians with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to implement trauma-informed developmental care. By fostering a deep understanding of trauma’s impact on human development, they strive to empower professionals to create safe, stable and nurturing environments for the most vulnerable populations—our tiniest humans and their families.
Our Experiences and How They Shape Us
In this episode, I share my journey as both a NICU parent and a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP). When my son William was born at just 23 weeks, my world changed forever. I share more about the emotional challenges and triumphs of navigating a NICU admission and journey, but also the unique difficulty of having my own baby in the NICU where I was working. Balancing my role as a caregiver and a mother in such a high-stress environment was one of the most intense experiences of my life, and it profoundly shaped how I view the NICU and life, both personally and professionally.
I share how my personal journey was the driving force behind creating Empowering NICU Parents, a platform dedicated to providing resources, guidance, and emotional support to families navigating the overwhelming NICU journey. Now that I know firsthand how isolating and traumatic a NICU admission can be, and my goal with Empowering NICU Parents is to ensure that families feel informed, connected, and supported every step of the way. Through education, community building, and sharing my own story, I aim to empower parents to become informed and engaged in their baby’s care, to understand their baby’s clinical course, confidently advocate for their little ones, and feel less alone during such a challenging time. With Empowering NICU Parents and the Empowering NICU Parents’ Podcast, it is my way of turning my own experience into something that can help others find strength and hope in the NICU.
Once I started to process my experience and trauma more, I felt an undeniable drive to do something meaningful with my experience. Being in the unique position of understanding both the medical side of the NICU as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, and the emotional and personal side as a parent, I knew I had a responsibility to make a difference. I truly believe that God placed me in this position for a reason, to bridge the gap between healthcare professionals and parents, and to use my experience to help others navigate the NICU journey with greater understanding, compassion, and support. This calling is what fuels my work every day, both with Empowering NICU Parents and as an advocate for families.
NICU Journal, Our NICU Roadmap
I created the NICU Journal, Our NICU Roadmap, to bridge the gap in communication, knowledge, and support that I experienced when William was in the NICU, empowering parents to become active members of their baby’s care team. These tools help families track progress, ask the right questions, and stay informed throughout their NICU journey. Through my podcast and social media, I continue to support families, ensuring they feel connected, supported, and never alone during this challenging time.
Family-Centered Care
My mission is to encourage parental presence and family-centered care in the NICU. Having experienced the NICU firsthand as a parent, I understand deeply the profound, positive impact a family-inclusive approach has on both babies and their families. I am dedicated to educating both NICU care teams and parents on the essential role that family-centered practices play in promoting healthy outcomes, bonding, and emotional well-being. By empowering parents to actively participate in their baby’s care and advocating for greater awareness among healthcare providers, I strive to foster a NICU environment where families feel supported, informed, and valued as key members of their baby’s care team.
Throughout the episode, we touch on the trauma associated once your baby has spent time in the NICU and how profoundly it affects families. We explored the differing ways men and women often process this trauma, recognizing that the emotional weight is felt by both parents but may manifest in unique ways, which are not always recognized or even associated with trauma. I emphasized the importance of trauma-informed care in the NICU, as well as the need for comprehensive mental health support for parents, ensuring that families feel connected, informed, and empowered throughout their NICU journey.
Lost Opportunities for Connection: The Human Side of NICU Care
We also discuss how healthcare providers must acknowledge that while the NICU may be part of their daily “work” life, for parents, it is their worst nightmare—a repetitive bad day filled with fear and uncertainty. This understanding calls for greater compassion, connection, and empathy towards NICU families, ensuring they feel supported, understood, and cared for during the most challenging time of their lives. We also touched on how the clinical care team often faces time constraints, limiting their ability to spend meaningful moments with families. This, combined with a limited understanding of the emotional needs of NICU parents, can result in untouched opportunities for connection and support during such a vulnerable time.
Building a Better Tomorrow: Empowerment, Connection, and Trauma-Informed Care
The impact of trauma on NICU parents cannot be overstated. Mental health support for NICU families is vital. I hope to continue to support, educate, and empower families by giving them the tools they need to navigate their baby’s journey with confidence. At AngelEye Health, I continue to advocate for better communication, family-centered care, and emotional support for parents navigating the NICU journey. Specifically with my work on our new solution, NICU2Home, it reflects my commitment to improving the NICU experience for families, ensuring they feel educated, empowered, connected and supported. Moving forward, I will continue to advocate for trauma-informed care and fostering deeper connections between healthcare providers and the families they serve.
Closing
It has been such a privilege getting to know Mary both personally and professionally. I just had the honor to attend the Caring Essentials’ 2024 Science and Soul Conference – what an amazing and uplifting experience. I strongly encourage all NICU professionals to attend the conference next year and to look into the Trauma-informed Professional Certificate Program. You will not regret it!
I want to express my deepest gratitude to Mary Coughlin for giving me the opportunity to share my story on her Care OutLoud Podcast. It’s been an honor to share my journey as a NICU parent and to be able to reflect back on how my experience has shaped me both personally and professionally. I truly feel that if we stand united together in our commitment – we can make a meaningful impact for NICU families and ensure that they feel supported, connected, understood, non judged, and most importantly, seen and heard. I truly hope this episode resonates with you, and that it empowers you to continue advocating for the vulnerable, whether in your professional life or your own personal journey.
Thank you for listening, and thank you again, Mary! I am so grateful to call you a friend and colleague!
For more information on the Care OutLoud Podcast or how to become a Trauma-informed professional, head to Caring Essentials.
And as always, please consider sharing this episode with someone who may gain some value from it! remember—together, we are stronger!
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