Support after parents leave the Unit
1| Neonatal Follow-Up Clinic
2| Screening for Retinopathy
3| Screening for Hearing Loss

Neonatal Follow-Up Clinic

What happens when my baby comes home?
Taking your baby home is very exciting, and often, long awaited. While it is a time of great celebration, many parents feel a slight anxiety regarding the homecoming and concern surrounding their baby’s continuing health. The Neonatal Follow-Up Clinic has been established to help you continue to care for your baby and provide a multidisciplinary approach to the special needs of your baby after discharge from the Neonatal Unit.

Where is the clinic?
The Neonatal Clinic is held in the Children’s Outpatients Department in the Bernard Meade Wing next to the Children’s Wards - Beaver and Dolphin. It is held twice a m onth on Friday afternoon.

Why is it held at the hospital?
The clinic is hospital-based so several health care professionals can attend at the same time and your baby can see as many different professionals as is necessary in one visit.

Why does my baby need to come to a clinic anyway? 
Are the check-ups by my GP and Health Visitor insufficient?
Your baby will have had certain problems with his or her health, necessitating the stay on the Neonatal Unit. Not all babies will have needed intensive care, but all will have required expert specialist care. The team in the clinic will monitor your baby to ensure that there are no further problems associated with your baby’s stay on the Unit.  They will be able to answer your questions regarding any problems encountered during your baby’s hospitalisation and any concerns you may have now that your baby is at home. As many of these problems are uncommon, it is important that your baby is monitored by a specialist team. At the same time, your GP and Health Visitor will be able to help you and your baby with the more straightforward problems encountered by all families with babies.

Whom will I meet at the Follow-Up Clinic?
You and your baby will meet several differe nt people at the clinic.  Your baby’s growth is important to you and your baby, but also to us; therefore, your baby will be undressed so that we may measure his or her weight, length and head circumference. This will usually be performed by one of the staff that run the Outpatients’ Department. After that, you will meet one of the doctors in the clinic. At present, this is one of the consultants or registrars who work on the Neonatal Unit. They will want to discuss your baby with you and examine him or her. There will be ample time to ask questions and air any anxieties that you may have. If your baby needs a follow-up brain scan, this can be performed at the same visit (rather than at another appointment in the Xray Department).

Our Specialist Dietician will be present to answer any questions regarding feeding or weaning and offer advice regarding milks and vitamins.  We will be able to offer an audiological assessment to those babies in those cases where there is some concern regarding hearing. The neonatal liaison sister often attends the clinic particularly if she has been visiting you and your baby at home.

Equally important, you will meet other mothers with babies who have been through similar experiences. They may even have been in the Neonatal Unit at the same time as you. We will endeavour to keep your future appointments at the same time so that you can meet together again. We will also have information about Born Too Soon to keep you up to date with the work of the charity, future fund-raising events and to encourage our ever-increasing membership.

How many times will I have to attend the clinic?
This is difficult to answer, as all babies are different. Generally, most babies will need to attend three to four times in their first year of life and less frequently after that. Some of the smallest babies may continue to attend very infrequently for several years. This long-term follow-up will allow us to monitor your child’s growth and development, as well as give us the chance to audit the success of the Unit.

Will I always see the same doctor in clinic?
We will always try to arrange for the same doctor to see you and your baby. Sometimes this will not be possible.

Our aim behind this co-ordinated Neonatal Follow-Up Clinic is to provide all the support necessary for you to care for your special baby, helped by familiar faces from the Unit, and combine it all in one clinic visit.

If you have any suggestions as to improvements in our service, please let us know.

Dr.A. P.Winrow
Consultant Paediatrician