Projects

Abstract

Background: Developmentally Supportive Care is a broad category of interventions that is designed to minimize the stress of the NICU environment which include care such as control of external stimuli, clustering of nursery care activities, and positioning or swaddling of the preterm infant so as to provide a sense of containment similar to the intrauterine experience. The preterm neonates often lack adequate muscle tone and are at risk for developing abnormal movement pattern as well as skeleton deformation. Positioning is one of the important aspects of Developmentally Supportive Care to keep the baby comfortable. It is a basic neonatal nursing care and includes keeping the baby in supine, prone and side lying. As postural stability is a foundational milestone for motor development and premature infants are unable to exhibit postural stability without support, standardizing the definition of optimal positioning will lead to consistency in practice.  A neonatal positioning guideline implemented in NICU will help in the growth and development of preterm neonates.