Book of Dreams: Sacramento hospital seeks ‘lifesaver’ for preterm and opioid-exposed babies
Mercy San Juan Hospital nurse Melanie Linnenbrink loves new parents engaged as full partners in feeding and soothing the babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. But sometimes the unit is full and the parents can’t come, resulting in a hard day for everyone.
Unless they have a MamaRoo.
A MamaRoo is a multi-motion baby swing that replicates bouncing and swaying motions that parents make soothing their babies. It is designed to mimic a parent’s natural rhythms and movements, similar to being in a mother’s womb.
The NICU staff wants to add eight MamaRoos to help supplement care for all of the unit’s preterm babies, but especially for babies born with opioid exposure. Linnenbrink hopes readers of The Sacramento Bee’s Book of Dreams stories can come to the rescue this year, contributing $2,155 for the new MamaRoos.
“We focus on three things here: Can the baby eat, can the baby sleep; can the baby be consoled within 10 minutes or less. If they can’t, then they need extra help,” she said.
Babies can be in the NICU for a month or even longer before they are ready to go home, Linnenbrink said. The presence of parents interacting intensely with their children during that time is “the best medicine,” she said.
Unfortunately, more often than either the parents or staff would like, some moms and dads can’t get to the hospital every day for a variety of reasons — because they lack transportation, can’t get off work, live too far away, have no one at home to care for their other children or are sick.
Comforted by care
Sarah Spencer is still waiting for Casey to come home. He has been in the NICU since Sept. 21.
“His lungs have been slow to develop,” she said, “but everything else is developed for a preemie.”
She said she and her husband are challenged to get to the hospital frequently to be with Casey because they are juggling so many needs.
“I have a twin boy and girl who are 3? at home,” she said. “My mom is dealing with my dad who was in the ICU, my husband’s mom helps when she can, and we live 30 to 40 minutes away from the hospital.”
But she is comforted by the care her newborn is being given. “The nurses are doing a great job for Casey and I’m sure they are sacrificing a lot, too.”
MamaRoos baby swings to the rescue
The MamaRoos have come in handy, said Heather Cortez, a licensed clinical social worker and team member in the NICU.
“The MamaRoos are a lifesaver,” she said. “A few minutes to up to half an hour swinging and swaying can make a baby stop crying and get comfortable. It provides them with a sense of peace and comfort. We just need more of them.”
They can also come in handy when the NICU is extraordinarily busy. The nurses have multiple babies to care for at once, as they bounce from feeding and caring for one baby, then moving on to the next to give medications, take vital signs and do paperwork. After COVID, the number of volunteer baby cuddlers has dwindled to just a few, said Linnenbrink.
MamaRoos are portable and small enough to fit into a tight space, she added, and they don’t interfere with the medical equipment attached to the babies to monitor vital signs.
Raymika Mims, of south Sacramento, said she can attest to their value in the NICU. On a recent afternoon, she came to pick up her healthy newborn, Alona Marie, who stayed in the unit for a month due to her premature birth.
As Mims prepared to take her little girl home, she said sometimes she couldn’t come to the hospital, especially because she has two young boys at home.
“It was kind of scary,” she said, but “thanks to these nurse mommies she had great care.”
Looking content in her pink onesie, Alona sat sleeping in the MamaRoo while her mom watched. “She is chillin’ in this thing. I wish I had one of these.”
‘Better for soothing’
MamaRoos are not only comfortable for babies like Alona and Casey, but they apparently are proving to be one partial alternative to using drugs to comfort a different subset of babies — babies suffering from opioid exposure.
Those babies can often experience pain, body shakes and have problems sleeping. They need extra swaddling and soothing.
Traditional treatment for opioid-exposed babies may involve morphine or methadone, Linnenbrink said. MamaRoos can be a part of a non-pharmacological regime that also includes swaddling, skin-to-skin care and breastfeeding.
Dr. Carolyn Getman, medical director of the NICU, said about 40 to 50 babies a year — 10% of the babies coming through the NICU — have been exposed to opioids, many as a result of the mother taking fentanyl.
“We used to have conventional baby swings, but they aren’t considered safe,” she said. “These are gentler, better for their development, better for soothing and better for comfort.”
4 Moms, the maker of the MamaRoos, said in a press release that the product has become popular in NICUs across the country. A preliminary survey of 126 NICU nurses in one hospital conducted by the National Perinatal Association and 4Moms in 2019 reported that opioid-exposed babies placed in the infant swings were more physiologically stable, with lower heart and respiratory rates, and were observed to be in a calmer behavioral state.
“I know this works,” Linnenbrink said. “Unfortunately, our hospital budget is currently very tight and while (MamaRoos) are wonderful, they are not part of our regular budget, so it would be great if the community could help our babies out.”
Book of Dreams
The request: Mercy San Juan Hospital seeks eight MamaRoo baby swings for its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
The cost: $2,155.