Child Life Specialist "Soldiers" Needed!

There are babies hospitalised on nearly every unit of a paediatric hospitals all over the world right now wearing loose, paper thin hospital gowns, struggling to feel safe. They're often strapped into papoose boards for IVs, blood draws, eye drops or sutures and, although the hearts of the staff members bleed for these babies, there doesn't seem to be another way. 
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Well, there didn't seem to be another way- until now...

I became a Certified Child Life Specialist in June 2007, roughly a year after working in the field. I completed a  Practicum at a children's hospital in Texas on the Medical/Surgical Unit and spent most of my days with the "trach babies" reading stories, singing songs, and doing my best to get them into the strongly advocated for hands-over-heart position. Every 15-20 minutes (it seemed), one of the babies, wearing a diaper or loose gown, was being suctioned by a nurse and their arms would flail wildly as they struggled to cope with this necessary nuisance. I remember my twenty-year old self wondering if there was a better way to comfort them... 

I then completed another practicum in a different hospital nearby including a NICU and ER rotation. In the NICU I learned from a Child Life Specialist I'd come to refer to as "The Baby Whisperer" for the next twenty years and who I'd eventually serve on a team with. In fact, she'd help review my future product designs. She advocated heavily for swaddling and taught me the importance of containment and creating boundaries for newborns, not only for comfort and safe sleep, but for bone fusion and muscle tone. She taught me how to swaddle babies during various procedures to keep them calm, reduce trauma and negative touch. I noticed that without the guidance of a Child Life Specialist, many of these babies went unswaddled during procedures and would arch their backs, splay their finger and toes (an infant stress signal) and start hiccuping or yawning, which are also signs of stress. 

I knew from my coursework in Child Development that stress causes an increase in cortisol levels and the firing and rewiring of neurons in the brain that say, "You're not safe." I knew that babies preferred to be swaddled and when they're unswaddled, especially in the first three months of life known as "The Fourth Trimester," they feel as though they're falling. They flail the arms and legs around desperately looking for boundaries to get a sense of safety. 

Following these practicums I'd complete an internship in the ER and the Surgical units and then work Day Surgery and PICU before finally accepting a senior level position covering Hematology/Oncology and Gastroenterology. What I noticed across all of these units was that babies are EVERYWHERE in paediatric hospitals, yet there are NO swaddles and NO developmental care garments outside of the NICU. This bothered me immensely but, in my twenties, as a fairly new Child Life Specialist, I felt helpless and small, just like them. 

But, then I started a Parent Coaching business supporting new moms and teaching Newborn Care classes and sleep coaching outside of the hospital. I was advocating for parents to use a developmental care product called the Woombie, at home for safe sleep and comfort during distress. I reached out to Karen Barski, creator of the Woombie, and asked her if we could work together to redesign a Woombie to meet the needs of hospitalised infants. Luckily Karen is a "yes" person so together we created Woombie Med Pods and the famous Woombie Bili Pod, the first  swaddle for babies undergoing phototherapy that provided full luminosity!

We need Child Life Specialists to be our soldiers on the ground, advocating to their Charge Nurses and hospital system buyers to offer the Woombie Med Pods line on each unit! 

To Child Life Specialists who seek to comfort the tiniest peanuts on their units,

The Woombie Sleepy Pod can be given to term babies (NB 0-3m or Big Baby 14-19lbs)  for safe sleep, developmental care, and procedural support. Try this swaddle in the ER after stabilising an infant after a car crash, head sutures, abuse, or removal from a domestic violence situation. Use the Woombie Sleepy Pod for infants on the respiratory unit admitted for RSV, flu or croup. Use the Sleepy Pod in Radiology for EEGs or utilise the double zipper for a VCUG whilst keeping the baby swaddled waist up. The Woombie Trach Pod can swaddle babies with a trach placed or post-op cardiology patients. The Woombie Gastro Pod supports babies with post-op stoma, umbilical IV, ostomy bags, or g-buttons and the Woombie Bili Pod can be used for babies undergoing withdrawal symptoms from opioid addiction without the risk of overheating due to its breathability factors. Consider the Woombie Med Pod for sickle cell patients, after PICC line placement, or the Woombie Trach Pod for patients with port-a-caths or broviacs. What if the Woombie Sleepy Pod was available in wound care? Trust me, I remember how hard it was to safely hold a baby into a comfort position during an unpacking of a wound! The double zipper makes it easy to access the limb needed for the procedure while keeping the rest of the baby contained and warm.

Whichever unit you cover, we need you, Child Life Specialists, to advocate for Woombie Med Pods for developmental care and procedural support! Please reach out to a fellow Child Life Specialist Chelsea Vail at [email protected] to discuss your unit's needs. We'd like to help you get started!

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