The Infant Development and Family Centered Program

One of the specialized programs sponsored by the Neonatology Program, that assists infants with improved out come, is the family-centered care and individualized developmental care provided to all the infants in the NICU.

A specialized developmental care team staffed by infant developmental specialists, occupational and physical therapists, family psychologists, nurses, Neonatologists and parents of graduates, has outlined a developmental care plan for every infant in the NICU.

Parents are welcomed as team members, participating in the care of their infants while in the NICU, with special emphasis in encouraging kangaroo care and participation in parenting education classes that support the families with knowledge related to infant development and expected milestones.

The NICU is a quiet, softly lit environment where parents and staff utilize developmental techniques to sooth and handle infants. The NICU is the only NICU in NYC that provides this type of parenting interaction and infant care.

The program is an avenue to provide developmentally supportive care to infants as well as intervene and educate parents. This program benefits the children by improving medical outcome, decreasing length of stay, decreasing psychological stress, improving parenting skills, improving neuro-developmental outcome and decreasing need for special education.

In addition, the program is easily integrated with NCCCP and Infant Apnea Program. The Developmental Program recently the recipient of a Variety Children's Charity award for developmental care, is under the direction of Karen D. Hendricks-Muñoz, M.D., Carol Prendergast, Ed.D., Ms. Kate Galanek, Dr. Michelle Zaccario and Ms. Felice Sklamberg.