Three tips for mothers caring for a premature baby

There are three tips that I’d like to give to parents of premature babies. Again, one, make sure if you are
starting to feel depressed, that you get some help for that. If the parent is feeling depressed that translates
over to the child, and children have a lot of adverse outcomes when they are parented by parents who are
depressed or overly anxious. So again, take good care of your emotional self first.

Secondly, it’s really important to realize that chances are you are going to have a child, even though they
were born prematurely, who will be a little behind developmentally until they are about two years of age, but
then they are going to catch up and they are going to do really well.

So what you don’t want to do is start seeing that child as, they are so vulnerable, they are so fragile, I have
to treat them like an egg that’s ready to break. And treating your child fragilely, overprotecting your child
really can have some long term negative outcomes, emotional and behavioral problems in that particular
child.

Thirdly, talk to your pediatric healthcare provider about whatever your concerns are. Your pediatrician or
your pediatric nurse practitioner is there to listen to your concerns, to respond to them and to help you
parent your child in a way that will lead to the best outcomes.