Description
“Hold Your Prem – the film” – essential viewing for all parents of a preterm infant !
“Hold Your Prem” are words that every parent of a preterm baby longs to hear. This film explains why holding baby in skin-to-skin contact on mother is best for babies, physically, emotionally and mentally. It shows practically how to do this, from delivery or theatre to the NICU.
On mother’s chest baby feels SAFE. This helps her heart and lungs work best. This also makes her open her eyes, and bond with her parents. She sleeps and grows better.
In skin to skin contact more breast milk is produced, and parents are shown how to help even tiny prems to breastfeed. Parents are shown their baby’s stress signals and how to calm them.
Mothers benefit also, they sleep and cope better. Parents are encouraged to face their emotions, and empowered to care for their prem baby practically.
The film is 29 minutes, and emphasizes the importance of early skin-to-skin contact. It encourages parents to face their emotions, in order to cope better and provide care for their preterm baby. It demonstrates breastfeeding prems, and encourages early initiation. It explains some basic neuroscience in relation to prematurity, the importance of sleep, and avoiding stress. It gives parents practical ways to help their prem develop properly.
In addition, there are separate extracts for teaching from the film on
- Technical support in the NICU (2 minutes)
- Recognizing stress signals (3 minutes)
- Avoiding stress (3 minutes)
- How to calm a baby (1 minutes)
Additional footage (not in the main film)
- How to encourage early breastfeeding of preterms (3 minutes)
- How to do skin-to-skin safely (9 minutes)
- An interview with Jill Bergman about the book and the film (4 minutes)