PORTSMOUTH

Two-year-old Xavier Jones looked hale and hardy Wednesday, a far cry from when he first arrived at this neonatal intensive care unit weighing 1 pound and 13 ounces.

Xavier and a handful of other "NICU grads" returned to Portsmouth Naval Medical Center with their parents to celebrate its becoming the first military hospital to partner with the March of Dimes in supporting families of babies in neonatal units.

The NICU Family Support program will connect new parents with other military families who have had babies born too soon or with health problems. It will provide special training for hospital staff in how to inform and comfort parents and relatives of premature babies, and offer educational materials and memory books that celebrate moments like baby's first day off the respirator.

Cmdr. Robert Englert, medical director of the neonatal unit, said clinical care is top-notch for babies who land there, but he wanted to improve relations with "the most vulnerable, stressed people in our NICU, and that's the parents."

Of the 3,500 babies born each year at Portsmouth Naval, about 400 are admitted to the hospital's Level 3 NICU. They stay anywhere from hours to more than five months.

It's estimated that a half- million babies in the country are born prematurely - 12,000 in Virginia - every year. Early birth is the leading cause of newborn death.

Dr. Scott Berns, the senior vice president of the March of Dimes national office, said those statistics were behind the organization's decision to roll out the NICU support program to 86 hospitals during the past five years, "but we were always missing an important group, military families."

Spouses on deployment, far-flung extended families, and the stress of active duty are just a few of the extra layers that can compound the worry of a long hospital stay and a fragile baby.

"They have a lot of unique aspects," Berns said. "First, these are families who are serving our country, and that is stressful in and of itself."

The techniques used to train staff and educate families are based on interviews with families of premature babies who ha ve reported what helped and what hurt them emotionally during their babies' time in the hospital, according to Liza Cooper, the program's national director.

A team within the unit also will help connect families with resources and support when they make the transition from hospital to home.

Another hospital in the state, Henrico Doctors' Hospital in Richmond, was the first in the state to launch this support program in 2007, but Portsmouth Naval will be the first in Hampton Roads and the first military hospital, both stateside and overseas. The cost, $20,000 for two years, is being split between the March of Dimes and the hospital.

Betsy Jones of Suffolk has grown familiar with Portsmouth Naval's NICU. She's Xavier's mom. Her son spent three months in the unit when he was born. A year later, his sister, Shyanne, also arrived early and spent a month in the NICU.

Both children were on hand to help celebrate the launch of the support initiative.

"Moms who don't know what to expect need that extra support because not everyone has family who live here, so that makes it hard," Jones said.

Elizabeth Simpson, (757) 446-2635, elizabeth.simpson@pilotonline.com

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Source URL (retrieved on 05/14/2009 - 09:32): http://hamptonroads.com/2009/05/partnership-offers-help-military-families-preemies