Webcameras for parents: 24/7

‘I can check in at any time and feel less anxious,’ says mom of triplets.

A new program at the neonatal intensive care unit at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital is allowing new parents to keep close watch over their baby, even if they can’t be near the hospital.

The program, believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, has webcams livestreaming 24/7 from the bedsides of the hospital’s neonatal patients to family members’ screens.

Dr. Sibasis Daspal, who spearheaded the project, said 10 cameras were installed in late July.

The webcams livestream to a private account. Parents are given the login and password and can share that information with family members anywhere in the world. The family can then see the newborn patient via any device: desktop, tablet or smartphone.

Daspal said it may help alleviate some of the stress parents go through after birth, increase bonding between the parents and the child and even help with breastfeeding. Moms can see their babies whenever and wherever they’re using their breast pump.

‘It’s meant a great deal’
Erin Trytten gave birth to triplets earlier this month and said seeing her babies in the NICU “was for sure emotional, even though we knew that’s what would happen and that would be their care plan.”

She and her husband are one of the first sets of parents to have access to a webcam. For her livestream, the camera will be centred on one baby at a time for the weeks that the triplets are in hospital.

“I can check in at any time and feel less anxious about leaving the babies,” she said.

Trytten is staying nearby at the Ronald McDonald House and uses the livestream often, but as they’re a farming and ranching family, it’s been an even more vital link for her husband.

“Right now my husband is harvesting and he is unable to be here on a daily basis, and he can check in on the baby that has the camera at any point as well.”

Trytten said she has shared the livestream with the triplets’ grandparents, as none of them live nearby and can visit.

“It’s meant a great deal,” she said.
Original article at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatoon-royal-university-hospital-nicu-babies-web-cameras

Photo credit: Nicky Loh/Reuters

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