Discharge to home

Association of Women's Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) has a Late Preterm Infant Initiative with parental information that can be utilized to educate parents on the behavior, care, risks and breastfeeding of this group of newborns.  Visit the site at AWHONN Late Preterm Infant Initiative 
to view this great information to assist with your discharge instructions.

Prior to discharge, any newborn less than 37 weeks gestation should have a car seat pulse ox study completed.  What this involves is strapping the baby in the car seat that will be used for the baby, monitoring their oxygen saturation using a pulse oximeter for a minimum of 1 hour.  Because these newborns are usually smaller, with less developed neck muscle strength it is much easier for them to block their airway by the position of their head, either too much to the side, or sagging onto the chest.  By checking their tolerance in a car seat, we can better assure the parents that the baby will be safe traveling for short distances, as for physician visits.  Newborns in this category are not able to tolerate long road trips and should be allowed out of the car seat at least every 2 hours if this travel is necessary.
Many parents do not understand the risk of feeding a baby that is strapped in a car seat.  It is important to discuss this prior to discharge.  Demonstrating that it takes more steps to remove a bottle from the baby's mouth, unstrap the baby from the car seat and then pick him/her up to allow clearance of fluid when the baby chokes will help them to understand.  Because these babies are not "expert" feeders, they can still have episodes of choking or apnea while feeding from a bottle especially.
We have helped to get these baby's this far, we do not want to see them return as a "rule out SIDS" in the emergency department.