Family Nurture Intervention in the CHoNJ NICU

Overview

The purpose of this proposal is to conduct a replication study of Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) at CHoNJ. FNI facilitates mother-infant interactions that are vital to early development. These include early and repeated mother/infant calming interactions during the NICU stay, such as interactive touch with vocal soothing, sustained reciprocal olfactory exposure and family practice in comforting, and systematically implemented skin to skin holding. This has already been studied at CHONY. Findings reveal that infants who receive FNI have significant increases in EEG power, a measure of brain activity, near to term age, when compared with those who receive Standard Care. There will be two groups; STANDARD CARE (SC) and INTERVENTION (FNI). In addition, 10 pilot subjects will be enrolled to train the staff involved in the procedures used in this Randomized Control Trial (RCT). The pilot patients will be enrolled identical to study patients and will be encouraged to participate fully. They will not be included in the analysis of the RCT. The STANDARD CARE group will receive current standard of care in NICU. The INTERVENTION group, in addition to the standard care, will receive the FNI intervention, which will be facilitated by our Nurture Specialists. In addition to the SC and FNI groups, there will be a third non-randomized group of infants born at term age who will receive standard care for newborns at CHoNJ. Assessments in the NICU will include physiological measures (ECG EEG), measures of maternal sensitivity through recorded mother-infant interactions and a variety of specimen collections (saliva, blood, and breast milk samples). The investigators will be conducting two follow up studies, at 4 months corrected age and at 12 months corrected age. The investigators will test the immediate and long-term effects of this approach to the development of preterm infants. The investigators hypothesize that this intervention will alter a wide range of indices of physiological regulatory capacities, and increase brain activity as measured by EEG (power and coherence) such that a brain activation pattern in the intervention group will be more similar to that of full term infants as opposed to the standard care group. Longer term indices of mother psychological and infant neurobehavioral outcomes will also be improved when assessed during the first few months of life.

The purpose of this study is to compare the value of the current approach of encouraging contact between mothers and their babies (Standard Care) in the NICU with a more wide ranging enhanced approach (Family Nurture Intervention). This approach is based on enhancing aspects of maternal nurturing including mother-infant reciprocal calming, which are vital to early development. A specific goal is to improve the mother's view of her baby, reduce negative emotions about having delivered a baby prematurely, and help her gain confidence in her caretaking abilities. Since preterm babies are often easily upset, this study will facilitate mothers in comforting and calming their babies. An earlier study at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York (CHONY) has shown positive outcomes in the enhanced treatment group in a variety of areas, including EEG brain activity at term age. Assessments in the NICU and in secondary follow-up measures at 4, and 12 months of age will test the immediate and long-term effects of this new enhanced approach to the nurture of prematurely born infants. We will undertake a replication study on patients in the NICU at CHoNJ to confirm and further elucidate the positive effects of enhanced nurturing. We hypothesize that enhanced nurturing will alter a wide range of physiologic regulatory capacities, reduce morbidity, decrease Length of Stay (LOS) and increase brain activity as measured by EEG (power and coherence). In addition this approach may influence a brain activation pattern (particularly in the area of the anterior cerebral cortex responsible for executive decision-making) in the intervention group that is more similar to that of a full term infant. Longer term measures of mother's psychological and infant's neurobehavioral outcomes will also be improved when assessed during the first few months of life. This study aims to replicate and build on an existing study at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York (CHONY) that compares the current protocol for encouraging mother/infant interactions (standard care) with a multifaceted intervention to enhance mother and infant bonding (Family Nurture Intervention - FNI). The FNI was piloted and studied in a cohort of 150 mother-infant pairs at CHONY beginning in 2009. While the study is ongoing, significant differences in brain activity of these preterm infants was found at term as measured by EEG power in the intervention premature infants as compared to the standard care group, with no increased risk of morbidity or mortality in the intervention group. The study demonstrated that the approach may influence a brain activation pattern (particularly in the area of the anterior cerebral cortex responsible for executive decision-making) in the intervention group that is more similar to that of a full term infant (38-42 weeks gestation). This and other research warrants the investigation of better intervention strategies that can reduce morbidity and ameliorate adverse outcomes in these infants. The purpose of this current study is to determine whether the findings from CHONY are replicable, the efficacy of the FNI protocol in improving developmental outcomes in preterm births in a different cohort (at CHoNJ) and to compare the outcomes of patients in two different hospital environments. The study will again compare the current standard of care in the NICU, which includes periodic skin-to-skin holding, to a Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) which adds other interventions: interactive touch with vocal soothing, sustained reciprocal olfactory exposure, and family modeling and practice in comforting as well as a more systematic implementation of skin-to-skin holding. The behavioral, neurobiological and clinical insights gained from this project may eventually lead to better prevention of developmental disorders, reduced morbidity and more effective clinical intervention strategies both in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and after discharge. We hypothesize that the treated babies will show better results in the primary outcome measure in the short term and secondary long term as compared to infants undergoing standard care.