Pictures of the NICU at Riley Mother Baby Hospital

The mothers come into the NICU every three hours to provide care for their babies and to feed them.

Out of 48 babies, only two had mothers who didn't come to provide milk. When the babies don't receive breast milk, they get formula. The patient assistants make the milk and bring it to the unit. This is what it looks like when it arrives. The nurse pours the amount needed into a cup, feeds the baby, then washes the cup in the large bucket and sets it out to dry for the next feeding. 

These are 60 gtt per minute solusets. They do not have IV pumps in their unit so this is how the fluid 

Is figured out for the day: The doctor makes an order. The nurse draws up the desired amount of each fluid into the soluset, but only draws enough for 12hrs. Then the nurse watches the gtt rate. It's kind of a guessing game I learned! If half of that fluid has gone in by five hrs, then It's running too fast and needs slowed down! I finally got it down though! 

Meds are given in the morning. This is how meds are drawn up and given. Notice the needles in the tops of the vials. That is how they stay and the nurse hooks a syringe to those. Different! Pharmacy doesn't just send them up an hour before they are due! 

I've never appreciated foam alcohol hand sanitizer More than when I was in the unit! The hospital is on a 

Shortage of sanitizer so they use the purple bottle above called, spirit.  It's pure liquid. If the nurses are able to afford sanitizer on their own they can bring it and keep in their pockets. If not it's soap and water or spirit.   They also do not have paper towels anywhere. I will now appreciate paper towel so much more. The bottle on the left is a bottle of normal saline. They do not have pre drawn up syringes of NS, so you just draw your own from the bottle

Need heat? If the baby is cold, you just move the space heater closer.

Flip flops anyone? The mothers are not allowed to wear shoes into the unit bc it can bring in dirt and germs, so they are always barefoot. The staff have to bring a pair of shoes designated just for the NICU 

For the same reason. So just outside the door at each of the feeding times, there are lots of shoes! 

Bath time.  The mothers do a bath in the morning. They do not have washcloths. They use cotton wool instead. They also use this instead of gauze. So I tore all of these cotton balls, put them in the bath 

Bowls, and then got hot water in the hallway. I was able to give one bath to a baby who's mother was 

Unable to come into the unit.

Oxygen.  This is the oxygen humidity source for multiple babies. They do not have individual wall 

Set-ups for humidity. With this being said, you can imagine the amount of tubing that is strung in, around, and between isolettes and beds.