Pathway for parents or carers of babies aged 0 to 6 months receiving neonatal care
Supporting your journey of understanding your preterm or sick baby while in hospital.
Pathway stages
Bitesize stages for daily steps towards confident parenting and connected relationships.
1. Understanding where you are and what has happened
1.1 Welcome!
1.2 This course
1.3 The hospital
1.4 A few questions
1.5 National resources for you
1.6 Local resources for you
1.7 What’s next
2. Understanding your feelings in hospital
2.1 How are you feeling today?
2.2 More about feelings
2.3 Sensory overload
2.5 Fathers and partners
2.6 Children at home
2.7 Support for you whilst you’re in hospital
2.8 Who is helpful to you and how?
2.9 Containment: the basics
2.10 Containment: learning more
2.11 And more
2.12 Making space in your mind
2.13 Looking after yourself
2.14 Calming you, calming baby
2.15 Helping your baby to process their feelings
2.16 Practice Activity
3. Your safety bubble
3.1 Your safety bubble
3.2 Coping with uncertainty
3.3 Loss
4. Understanding your baby in hospital
4.1 Feedback on the Practice Activity
4.2 Your baby’s development
4.3 Your confidence about parenting in hospital
4.5 Watching your baby
4.6 Your baby is talking to you
4.7 You and your baby’s brain
4.8 You talking to your baby
4.9 Feeding the relationship
4.10 The Three Key Questions
4.11 Practice Activity
5. Preparing for discharge home
5.1 Feedback on the Practice Activity
5.2 How do you feel about bringing your baby home?
5.3 Marking your baby’s homecoming
5.4 Who is helpful to you and how
5.5 Feeding with a tube
5.6 Practical preparations for discharge
6. Review and congratulations
6.1 Congratulations!
6.2 A few questions
6.3 Acknowledgements
About this pathway
If your baby has arrived early or is receiving specialist medical care, life may feel uncertain. It is normal to be processing worry, exhaustion and hope all at once. Neonatal health specialists and clinical psychologists created this pathway to support you.
Join this pathway to find ideas and techniques for nurturing wellbeing. You’ll learn from care specialists, mental health experts and other parents with shared experience. Along the way you will find out about:
- Understanding baby brain development in neonatal care
- How to recognise cues for comfort, bonding, and sleep
- Feeding in the Neonatal intensive care unit — through tube, or breast
- Building confidence in soothing and caring for your baby
You will also learn about how to cope with feelings of uncertainty and other big emotions.
This might not be the journey you expected, but you are not alone. We’re here to help build your confidence when parenting in hospital and preparing to bring your baby home.