Welcome to Our Newest Offering

We believe in:

  • Giving Preterm and Medically at Risk Newborns and Infants a voice in their care
  • Supporting Families with hospitalized babies to build close and trusting relationships as their lifelong supporters and advocates
  • Supporting Healthcare Professionals’ personal and professional development

From videos to podcasts to reading materials, the NFI offers a range of online resources to learn about NIDCAP

Please check back – Resources are continually being added!

Videos

Dr. Heidelise Als' Webinar - NIDCAP Care: Supporting Parents’ Understanding of their Infants' Behavior
(Originally aired on March 20, 2021)

Members*: Free
*Professional, Professional-in-Training and Family Members

Allied Members: 20.00 USD
Non-Members: 35.00 USD
Note: Once your license is activated you have one week of unlimited viewing.

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Does My Baby Feel Pain

Melissa Johnson, PhD, a pediatric psychologist with 30 years of experience working in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at WakeMed in Raleigh, North Carolina, discusses parents’ concerns around whether their babies feel pain and what strategies can be used to support their infants. Dr. Johnson is also the mother of a daughter born prematurely.

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Taking your Baby Home

Jennifer Degl, a mother of a daughter born extremely early, is an advocate for maternal and newborn health. In this film she talks about taking your baby home from the NICU.

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What is Life Like after the NICU

Latoshia Rouse, a mother of four, including triplets who were born prematurely, talks about life after the NICU, for parents and babies.

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Preparing for Discharge from the NICU

gretchen Lawhon, PhD, RN, FAAN, Clinical Nurse Scientist and NIDCAP Master Trainer talks about how to prepare for discharge from the NICU.

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Why is my Baby Sleeping so Much?

James Helm, PhD, Senior NIDCAP Trainer and Director of the Carolina NIDCAP Training Center, explains the importance of sleep in the preterm infant and how to provide support to them while they sleep.

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How Does my Baby Grow

gretchen Lawhon, PhD, RN, FAAN, Clinical Nurse Scientist and NIDCAP Master Trainer describes the role and importance of nurturance and the parent-infant relationship in a baby’s growth and development.

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Understanding Infant Behavior

Dorothy Vittner, PhD, RN, FAAN, Senior NIDCAP Trainer explains how learning to observe and listen to your baby will help you understand their needs and, in turn, help you to better support them.

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Supporting Parents to Actively Participate in Infant Care Activities

Dorothy Vittner, PhD, RN, FAAN, Senior NIDCAP Trainer, talks about the importance of parent participation in the care of their infant while in the newborn intensive care unit.

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New NICU Parent

Jennifer Degl, a mother of a daughter born extremely early, is an advocate for maternal and newborn health. In this film she offers some recommendations for parents who are new to the NICU.

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What do I need to know when in the NICU?

Melissa Johnson, PhD, a pediatric psychologist with 30 years of experience working in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at WakeMed in Raleigh, North Carolina, offers encouragement to parents as they navigate the NICU. Dr. Johnson is also the mother of a daughter born prematurely.

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What is the NIDCAP Approach?

James Helm, PhD, Senior NIDCAP Trainer and Director of the Carolina NIDCAP Training Center, explains the NIDCAP approach to care and its benefits to babies and their families.

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What is Developmental Care?

James Helm, PhD, Senior NIDCAP Trainer and Director of the Carolina NIDCAP Training Center, describes the supportive nature of Developmental Care and the importance of parent participation in the care of their babies while in an intensive care setting.

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How Can I Help my Baby's Brain Development?

gretchen Lawhon, PhD, RN, FAAN, Clinical Nurse Scientist and NIDCAP Master Trainer, draws on her many years of experience in the NICU setting and with the NIDCAP approach, to answer the questions that parents often ask regarding how they can help optimize their baby’s development.

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Family Resource Series:
Can I Hold my NICU Baby?

Latoshia Rouse, a mother of four, including triplets who were born prematurely, talks about the benefits of Kangaroo Care, for parents and babies.

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Family Resource Series:
Skin-to-Skin Holding in the NICU

Dorothy Vittner, PhD, RN, FAAN, Senior NIDCAP Trainer, talks about the effects and importance of skin-to-skin holding.

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Family Resource Series:
Being Admitted to the NICU

Jennifer Degl, a mother of a daughter born extremely early, is an advocate for maternal and newborn health.  In this film she offers suggestions for the types of questions parents may want to ask upon their baby’s admission to the NICU.

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NIDCAP Nursery Certification: Changing Hospital Care for Infants and their Families

Learn about NIDCAP Nursery Certification which recognizes a nursery’s demonstrated commitment to promote best short and long term development of all infants in their care. See why the NFI aspires for all newborns and families to receive hospital care in the relationship based, family integrated NIDCAP model.

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NIDCAP: One Family's Story

Prematurely born, medically fragile and in critical need of nurturing care. One family’s experience with the life changing support of NIDCAP professionals as they navigate the necessary but often overwhelming early days of their infant’s new life and their new life as a family. NIDCAP insures that the ‘voice of the newborn’ is heard.

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NIDCAP: Three Decades of Training

NIDCAP is short for the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program. In each episode, we bring to you Healthcare Professionals, Parents, and others to discuss best practices to support the health and development of infants and their families, and those that care for them, in intensive care hospital settings and beyond.

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Podcasts

Episode 1
How NICU Babies Communicate: Featuring Dr. Heidelise Als PhD

NIDCAP is short for the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program. In each episode, we bring to you Healthcare Professionals, Parents, and others to discuss best practices to support the health and development of infants and their families, and those who care for them, in intensive care hospital settings and beyond.

This episode features Heidelise Als, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Director of Neurobehavioral Infant and Child Studies at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Episode 2
NICU Family Partnerships

NIDCAP is short for the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program. In each episode, we bring to you Healthcare Professionals, Parents, and others to discuss best practices to support the health and development of infants and their families, and those who care for them, in intensive care hospital settings and beyond.

This episode features discussions about NICU Family Partnerships. The panel includes three members of the NIDCAP community, all with personal and emotional experiences of working in and with families as they care for our most fragile of babies in their first few moments of life.

Episode 3
NIDCAP Goes Beyond The NICU: Featuring Dr. James Helm

NIDCAP is short for the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program. In each episode, we bring to you Healthcare Professionals, Parents, and others to discuss best practices to support the health and development of infants and their families, and those who care for them, in intensive care hospital settings and beyond.

This episode features Jim Helm, PhD, Early Childhood Special Education, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been working in the NICU at WakeMed Health and Hospitals’ Raleigh campus for 35 years. He has been a NIDCAP Trainer for over 30 years.

Episode 4
Everyone Matters in the NICU

NIDCAP is short for the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program. In each episode, we bring to you Healthcare Professionals, Parents, and others to discuss best practices to support the health and development of infants and their families, and those who care for them, in intensive care hospital settings and beyond.

This episode features Dr. Dorothy Vittner and Dr. gretchen Lawhon.

Episode 5
Everything Matters in the NICU

NIDCAP is short for the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program. In each episode, we bring to you Healthcare Professionals, Parents, and others to discuss best practices to support the health and development of infants and their families, and those who care for them, in intensive care hospital settings and beyond.

This episode features Dr. Dorothy Vittner and Dr. gretchen Lawhon.

Readings

10 Pearls of Wisdom

These NIDCAP-based considerations are for parents with hospitalized babies in the intensive care nursery. They were developed to support parents and their babies to get to know one another and build close and trusting relationships. Babies feel and experience their parents and the world around them through all of their senses. The baby’s behavior guides the parent. How parents interact with their infant is much more important than what they do. The parents’ gentle caresses and soft smiles, and the tone of their voice provide comfort and assurance. A parent’s presence and love provides invaluable healing medicine for their baby.

These Pearls of Wisdom are available in other languages.

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Developmental Observer

The Developmental Observer, the official newsletter of the NIDCAP Federation International (NFI), is published semi-annually. The newsletter reflects our members’ and colleagues’ wealth of knowledge, scientific curiosity, experience and creativity and furthers the understanding of our NIDCAP work. We are enriched by learning from one another as we continue to evolve our NIDCAP model and its implementation for future generations. One issue per year is dedicated to publishing the abstracts that have been presented at the NIDCAP Trainers Meeting each year.

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NFI Program Overview

An overview of the NIDCAP, APIB and NIDCAP Nursery Programs.

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