Breastfeeding Challenges Made Easy for Late Preterm Infants: the Go-To Guide for Nurses and Lactation Consultants. Sandra Cole, $87.50

Evidence-based research underscores the importance of breastfeeding for the healthy development of late preterm infants, yet significant challenges can impede its success. This is a groundbreaking, problem-solving guide to the most effective techniques for breastfeeding this vulnerable population. Written for lactation consultants, NICU nurses, obstetrical nurses, and nurse-midwives, the book offers clear, simple, evidence-based solutions to the distinct breastfeeding difficulties affecting late preterm infants.

The guide describes the characteristics of late preterm infants and the physiological challenges-often invisible and overlooked by health care providers-caused by disturbances of respiratory, metabolic, neurologic, and immunologic functions. These problems are often exacerbated by poor breastfeeding and result in 13% of hospital readmissions by late preterm infants. The book examines maternal conditions that affect breastfeeding success and provides detailed, easy-to-follow instructions for the most effective breastfeeding techniques. It describes specific strategies health care professionals can take to overcome breastfeeding difficulties, including proper positioning and latch technique, the use of breast pumps and other helpful equipment, supplemental feedings, and more. Pictures that illustrate correct procedures clarify specific techniques, and user-friendly patient teaching guides further encourage successful breastfeeding. The book also supports the goals of many hospitals seeking to achieve Baby-Friendly Status.

Breastfeeding the Late Preterm Infant: Improving Care and Outcomes. Marsha Walker, $23.95

In this well-referenced monograph, Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC describes the late preterm infant, discusses contributors to late preterm birth, and explains the importance of the last six weeks of gestation. She discusses the impact of birth interventions on breastfeeding the late preterm infant and explains why mothers of late preterm infants may be at increased risk of delayed lactogenesis II. Includes:

• Breastfeeding management guidelines for the late preterm infant
• Issues such as hypothermia, hypoglycemia, respiratory instability, hypotonia, and immature feeding skills, and their impact on breastfeeding
• How to provide latch assistance, assess feedings at the breast, when to supplement, how to use bottles and artificial nipples, how to help others initiate and maintain maternal milk supply, and ways to optimize milk production
• Information on individualized feeding plans for moms to follow after discharge, including a sample plan.

Coming Home from the NICU: a Guide for Supporting Families in Early Infant Care and Development. Kathleen VandenBerg & Marci Hanson, $46.95

For families of an infant leaving the NICU, nothing’s more exciting — and challenging — than the critical transition to home life with their baby. Support the NICU-to-home transition with this accessible book, the complete guide to helping parents meet their baby’s special needs and promote optimal development in the first year after homecoming.

Invaluable for a wide range of professionals — including early interventionists, OTs, PTs, public health nurses, physicians, and social workers — this book is the key to providing family-centered, developmentally supportive guidance in the months after the NICU. Professionals will deepen their understanding of the emotional and physical challenges of the NICU experience, and they’ll get in-depth guidance on how to support parents effectively.

To illuminate the incredible strength of parents of premature infants, the book includes powerful stories of real families who share their experiences of supporting and loving their babies in the NICU and beyond. The book comes with a CD-ROM with printable handouts to share with families and lists of resources, websites, and organizations that provide additional information and support. With this definitive guide from two leading experts in infant development and early intervention, professionals will provide sensitive, effective support and guidance to new parents as they make a smooth transition to home life and develop strong relationships with their babies.

A practical handbook for healthcare professionals that covers all aspects of pre-term nutrition, using evidence-based information to promote safe and effective practice. Readers will discover problem-solving strategies, interventions, and information on meeting the nutritional requirements of pre-term infants.

Fragile Beginnings: Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU. Adam Wolfberg, $19.00

This gripping medical narrative brings readers into the complex world of the newborn intensive care, where dedicated doctors and nurses do all they can to coax life into their tiny patients. As a specialist in high-risk obstetrics, and the father of a child born prematurely, Adam Wolfberg explores the scientific, ethical, and emotional questions raised by such fragile beginnings, from the frontlines of the NICU and cutting-edge laboratories — and from his own daughter’s bedside.

Half Baked: the Story of My Nerves, My Newborn and How We Both Learned to Breathe. Alexa Stevenson, $18.95

Alexa Stevenson had spent most of her life preparing for the wrong disasters. When her daughter is born 15 weeks early, she is plunged into the strange half-light of the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, where she learns the Zen of medical uncertainty and makes the surprising discovery that a worst-case scenario may just be the best thing that’s ever happened to her.

From the indignities of infertility treatments to managing bedrest and parenting a preemie, Alexa recounts her rocky road to motherhood with a uniquely sharp, funny, yet poignant voice.

Human Milk in the NICU: Policy into Practice. Lois Arnold, $145.95

This unique text covers the use of banked, or stored, human milk in the hospital for premature and sick infants, and discusses the advantages of human milk feedings and the elements of hazard or risk introduced by the use of formulas, including rationales for the use of both mother’s own milk and donor human milk in the NICU.

This reference also highlights domestic health policies that impact the use of human milk for sick and fragile infants, international models and policies for milk banking, the history of donor milk banking and how it came into being and ethical issues surrounding the delivery of milk banking services and donor human milk in the NICU.

See the Table of Contents

Intensive Parenting: Surviving the Emotional Journey through the NICU. Deborah Davis & Mara Tesler Stein, $27.50

INTENSIVE PARENTING focuses on the experiences, feelings, and relationship issues that families face when a baby is admitted to the Neonatal Intensive care Unit (NICU). While other books explain a baby’s medical conditions and treatments, this book explores the parents’ experience in the NICU. By focusing solely on the NICU parenting experience, this book offers a concise, accessible, and unique guide.

Juniper: the Girl Who Was Born Too Soon. Kelley and Thomas French, $34.00

Juniper French was born four months early, at 23 weeks gestation. She weighed 1 pound, 4 ounces, and her twiggy body was the length of a Barbie doll. Her head was smaller than a tennis ball, her skin was nearly translucent, and through her chest you could see her flickering heart. Babies like Juniper, born at the edge of viability, trigger the question: Which is the greater act of love — to save her, or to let her go?

Kelley and Thomas French chose to fight for Juniper's life, and this is their incredible tale. In one exquisite memoir, the authors explore the border between what is possible and what is right. They marvel at the science that conceived and sustained their daughter and the love that made the difference. They probe the bond between a mother and a baby, between a husband and a wife. They trace the journey of their family from its fragile beginning to the miraculous survival of their now thriving daughter.

Kangaroo Babies: a Different Way of Mothering. Nathalie Charpak, $28.95

Providing a history and a beautifully illustrated practical guide to kangaroo mothering, this book explains the approach that is changing the way mothers relate to newborn babies and improving the way hospitals treat premature babies and their parents.

Kangaroo Care: the Best You Can Do to Help Your Preterm Infant. Susan Ludington-Hoe & Susan Golant, $22.00

Based on research and techniques pioneered in leading neonatal centres worldwide, Kangaroo Care is an informative guide to the benefits of this special way of holding and nurturing the small infant. It explains:

• Why Kangaroo Care enhances the pre-term baby's development
• How to use the technique with infants who require a ventilator or incubator
• How to read the baby's signals - and how to respond
• How to work with the NICU staff
• How to involve fathers and grandparents as well as mothers

The Moment You Were Born: a Story for You and Your Premature Baby. Sandra Lane & Brenda Miles, Illustrated by Shelly Hehenberger, $13.95

The Moment You Were Born is a gentle and soothing story for you and your baby as you share moments in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Read about the doctors and nurses providing care, about the machines that beep and hum, and about life all around. Reading and talking to your baby are ways to provide a loving connection during your time in the NICU. Your voice can comfort and caress, and strengthen the bond between you and your baby. Includes a Note to Parents and Caregivers with more ideas about sharing the NICU experience and staying close to your baby.

My Brother is a Preemie. Abraham Chuzzlewit & Jos. A. Vitterito II, $22.95

My Sister is a Preemie. Abraham Chuzzlewit & Jos. A. Vitterito II, $22.95

Having an infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is full of a flurry of emotions overshadowed by anxiety. An admission to the NICU is not anticipated and therefore can be a very trying experience. Explaining the hospitalization of the baby to the other children in your home can be challenging. The baby's siblings may be too young to understand, fearful of hospitals, or even upset that you are spending more time at the hospital than at home. This short book can serve as a light introduction to the NICU and foster further discussion with your other children or young relatives. It is best read together, ideally before a visit to the NICU. In addition to visiting the hospital, establish some routines and alone time with your children at home to help ease the transition as your new baby grows and heals in the intensive care unit.

Newborn Intensive Care: What Every Parent Needs to Know, 3rd Edition. Jeanette Zaichkin, Editor-in-Chief, $40.50

Newborn Intensive Care: What Every Parent Needs to Know helps parents of premature and sick newborns understand their baby's illness and work as partners with the healthcare team.

Expert contributors illuminate everything from communicating with parents; to the latest clinical and technologic advances; to the most effective use of post-hospital care resources. Clear and updated information on:

• Valuable perspectives on today's NICU experience from admission to outcome
• Quick reference tools: bibliography, resource listings, glossary of common abbreviations and terms
• Targeting key NICU issues and concerns
• Who's who in the NICU and how to work with the team
• The special health needs of a premature infant
• Feeding your baby
• Parenting in the NICU
• Major medical problems of premature and full-term infants and Neonatal surgery
• Coping with severe disabilities or infant loss
• Heading home from the NICU
• Future health and development of the growing child

100 Questions & Answers about Your High-Risk Pregnancy. Elizabeth Platt, Betty Campbell, Andrea Tetreau, & Michael Pinette, $23.95

100 Questions and Answers about Your High-Risk Pregnancy provides authoritative, practical answers to the most common questions posed by at-risk expecting parents. The text covers topics such as testing, mother's health, fetal health, complications, prevention and treatment, and physical and psychological coping. This book is an invaluable resource for anyone coping with the physical and emotional turmoil of high-risk pregnancy.

There are many good books that explain your premature baby's medical or developmental conditions and treatments … this book is different. It focuses on your experiences, feelings and relationships around the delivery, hospitalization, homecoming and long-term parenting of your premature baby and child. Parenting Your Premature Baby and Child provides suggestions and support for coping, adjusting and finding your way."

Preemie: Lessons in Love, Life and Motherhood. Kasey Mathews, $19.95

With a two-year-old at home and a baby born four months early (weighing one pound, eleven ounces), Kasey Mathews was thrown into a world unlike anything she had ever imagined. PREEMIE chronicles the journey of one tiny baby’s tenacious struggle and the mother who grew with her.

The Preemie Parent's Companion: The Essential Guide to Caring for Your Premature Baby in the Hospital, at Home, and Through the First Years, Susan L. Madden, $19.50

Susan Madden invites parents to become an integral part of their preemie's medical care while in the NICU. In fact, she goes further to provide essential advice in regards to caring for your baby at home and gives a detailed look into the future at the long term effects of prematurity. She has succeeded in creating an encouraging and comprehensive guide for families meeting the special challenges of premature birth.  

"This book helps parents to meet the high needs of the premature baby and thereby enjoy the unique rewards of this special type of parenting." — William Sears, M.D.

The Preemie Primer. Jennifer Gunter, $21.50

A complete guide for parents of premature babies — from birth through the toddler years and beyond.

Preemies: the Essential Guide for Parents of Premature Babies. Dana Weschler Linden, Emma Trenti  Paroli & Mia Weschler Doron, $29.99

Preemies is a comprehensive reference that is both reassuring and realistic, delivering current and practical information on medical care in a warm, caring, and engaging voice. Authors Dana Wechsler Linden and Emma Trenti Paroli are parents who have been there. Together with neonatologist Mia Wechsler Doron, they answer the dozens of questions that parents will have at every stage — from high risk pregnancy through preemie's hospitalization, to homecoming and the preschool years — imparting a vast, detailed store of knowledge in clear language that all readers can understand.

Each issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of North America focuses on a single topic relevant to practice. Comprehensive, state-of-the-art reviews of the medical literature provide current and practical information on the diagnosis and treatment of conditions in obstetrics and/or gynecology. This current issue focuses on the prediction, assessment and treatment of preterm labor.

Primary Care of the Premature Infant is a comprehensive reference that covers both the patho-physiology and epidemiology of problems occurring in premature babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and the management of these problems once the infant has been released from the NICU to a community practice.

Supporting Siblings & Their Families During Intensive Baby Care. Linda Rector, $32.50

An infant's NICU stay is a high-stress time for both parents and siblings. Supporting Siblings & Their Families During Intensive Baby Care helps clinicians, child life specialists, social workers, and other professionals guide parents as they:

• provide their older children with accurate information during a high-risk pregnancy
• discuss the new baby's NICU stay with siblings in sensitive, age-appropriate ways
• make sibling visits with the baby a success
• understand and address the particular needs of siblings of multiple newborns
• ease the transition period when an infant comes home
• include siblings in the baby's care
• explain a baby's death to an older brother or sister

Designed for all practitioners who work with NICU families, this easy-to-read book is also a lifeline for parents, who can use the advice and strategies to address the needs and concerns of their older children. Enhanced with photos and true stories from the author's experience as a neonatal child life specialist, this invaluable book will ensure better support for new siblings and help make a stressful, emotional time much easier for everyone involved.

This Lovely Life: a Memoir of Premature Motherhood. Vicki Forman, $15.50

Vicki Forman gave birth to Evan and Ellie, weighing just a pound at birth, at twenty-three weeks’ gestation. During the delivery she begged the doctors to "let her babies go" — she knew all too well that at twenty-three weeks they could very well die and, if they survived, they would face a high risk of permanent disabilities. However, California law demanded resuscitation. Her daughter died just four days later; her son survived and was indeed multiply disabled: blind, nonverbal, and dependent on a feeding tube.

This Lovely Life tells, with brilliant intensity, of what became of the Forman family after the birth of the twins — the harrowing medical interventions and ethical considerations involving the sanctity of life and death. Forman’s intelligent voice gives a sensitive, nuanced rendering of her guilt, her anger, and her eventual acceptance in this portrait of a mother’s fierce love for her children.

When Parents Say No: Religious and Cultural Influences on Pediatric Healthcare Treatment. Luanne Linnard-Palmer, $17.95

Pediatric healthcare professionals are sometimes faced with an ethical, emotionally charged dilemma when treatment, even life-saving treatment, goes against the religious or cultural beliefs of a pediatric patient's family. The impact of these situations is quite profound. Healthcare professionals want to treat the child using all known technology and interventions, yet the child's parents may refuse to consent to all or part of the needed care.

This book offers healthcare and social services professionals the information they need to create favorable outcomes when faced with parental refusal situations, including how to anticipate religious or cultural healthcare conflicts, how to work with the family and clergy to favorably resolve the conflict, and when and how to initiate legal action to save the child's life. Included are useful tools and checklists that should be posted in every emergency room and pediatric care unit.

Your Premature Baby: the First Five Years. Nikki Bradford, $19.95

The definitive guide to caring for a child born too soon, this compassionate and positive book draws on the medical expertise of the staff at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children; current research and the personal stories of parents. Full of hope and supportive guidance, Your Premature Baby takes parents from their baby's birth and into the first five years.

Your Premature Baby: the Practical and Reassuring Guide to Caring for Your Preterm Baby, Canadian Edition. Su Laurent & Maya Isaaks, $18.00

This accessible and informative book will guide you through what to expect in the NICU. The authors give you the information you need to work in partnership with your medical team, enabling you to ask the right questions and find the support you need.