The Benjamin Care range of products have been designed to support developmental care practice, one of our passions. The developmental care products in the Benjamin range were conceived and designed by a neonatal intensive care nurse with many years of experience after her son was born prematurely at 25 weeks’ gestation. They are designed to support skin-to-skin contact, Kangaroo Care, and to help with positioning, thermoregulation and other developmental care practices.
- Skin-to-Skin care at birth
- Kangaroo care
- Nests & supports
- Other Developmental Care products
- Helping with your unmet clinical needs
Clinical Background:
Skin-to-skin contact between baby and mother immediately after birth is widely recognised as important for both mother and child, with the first hour being particularly valuable. This initial period is considered to promote better cognitive, motor and emotional development for the newborn infant. Studies have conclusively shown that uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact delivers advantages for both mother and baby.
For the baby, skin-to-skin contact improves temperature regulation, decreases stress and helps with the breast-feeding process1,2,3. It has also been shown to have a positive impact on cardio-respiratory stability, sleep patterns, neurodevelopment outcomes, pain responses and length of hospital stay1,2.
For the mother this initial Kangaroo Care process helps stimulate milk production, improve the breast-feeding process, reduce blood loss and decrease pain.
Later in the nursing process, the use of nests for nursing young babies has been shown to reduce stress and help improve sleep patterns, whilst also helping thermoregulation. The boundary provided by a nest creates an environment similar to that in-utero, which has a positive effect on respiration and neurological development.
Skin-to-Skin Nursing at Birth:
The HugMee support sling was developed specifically to facilitate and promote skin-to-skin contact in the immediate period after delivery. The product design takes into account the particular needs found after Caesarean section delivery.
The HugMee is fully adjustable, allowing the baby to be positioned appropriately, promoting optimum skin-to-skin contact and ensuring that the newborn infant is kept warm and secure. Two openings in the sling allow the insertion of hands to touch the baby, whilst a foot pocket assures safety and security and a cut-away in the back allows access for any lines or monitoring leads.
The material used in the HugMee is an advanced technical textile which is soft, stretchy and breathable to ensure the baby is safe and comfortable. It is washable at high temperature (up to 90°C), for infection control, and is fast drying for convenience.
Kangaroo Care:
The Benjamin Kangaroo Sweater is designed to make it easier to provide kangaroo care for babies after the initial post-delivery period and is suitable for use in the NICU, SCBU, nursery and post-natal ward. It is ideal to comfort premature, low birth-weight and sick babies.
The Kangaroo Sweater has a range of practical features that keep the baby secure whilst allowing the parent freedom of movement. Special openings in the Sweater allow the parent to touch their infant, whilst mirrors built into the sleeves ensure that the parent can see the child’s face. Provision is made for probes, respiration tubes, delivery lines and monitoring equipment cables to ensure that even babies needing intensive support can still benefit from kangaroo care.
The Benjamin sweater helps parents cuddle in a more relaxed way for longer periods. The product offers privacy for the parent during skin-to-skin contact time and allows a mother to express milk at the same time. A special pouch is available that allows twins to be comforted together so both can benefit from kangaroo care simultaneously.
Nests & Supports:
The Benjamin ComfyNests offer a reassuring environment for babies whilst the ComfyStar, ComfyKiss and Comfy head support help with positioning and comforting. The products were developed with NIDCAP specialists to help deliver best developmental care practice.
Research has shown that the boundary provided by a nest has a positive effect on a baby’s respiration, reducing stress and promoting better sleep patterns and neurological development1. Nests also help an infant’s thermoregulation, which stimulates better growth1,2,3. The ComfyNest was specifically designed to suit premature and low birth-weight babies and is available in two sizes to suit babies with weights ranging from 500g to 2.5kg.
The ComfyNest, with the associated accessories, can be used to help position infants, including a mid-line orientation to promote hand-mouth and hand-hand contact. The smooth and flexible inner section allows the user to quickly and easily adjust the size to suit each individual patient and has non-slip material on the base to avoid unwanted movement of the baby. Four straps provide comfort and support to the baby and help to maintain its position; they can be applied either straight across the nest or in a cross-over orientation.
The Comfy head support is designed to help with positioning in order to avoid head preference and subsequent complications such as plagiocephaly. It can also be used to support the baby’s head, for example when on CPAP. The Comfy head support can be easily moulded to each individual patient and comes in two sizes to cater for preemies up to term babies.
The ComfyStar can be used to support or provide reassurance for the infant by placing it under or against different parts of the body. It is soft and easily manipulated, including folding to reduce size for smaller pre-term babies. The outer material can be wiped clean and comes with a removable soft, washable, fast-drying cover.
All the nests and supports are manufactured with an outer material that can be wiped clean. They are supplied with outer covers made in a soft, washable, quick drying fabric. The advanced cover material dries four times faster than cotton and is colour-fast, shrink resistant and odour-free.
Click to download the Benjamin Developmental Care brochure.
References
- Jefferies A. Kangaroo care for the preterm infant and family. 2012. Paediatr. Child Health, Vol. 7, No. 3.
- Hall D, Kirsten G. Kangaroo Mother Care – a review. 2008. Transfusion Medicine, Vol. 18.
- Blois M. Hold me close: encouraging essential mother/baby physical contact. 2007. Published in: Practices in the Behavioral Management of Health from Preconception to Adolescence, pp108-132.
Other Developmental Care products:
The DeltaNeo™ range includes a number of items for positioning and creating boundaries for babies. Details are shown on the Developmental Care – DeltaNeo product page.
Sucrose and glucose solutions have an established place in pain relief for neonates and small babies, which makes its own contribution to the developmental care process. Full details of the clinical background and products available from Delta Medical International are shown on the Sucrose/Glucose product page.
Pacifiers are typically used in neonates where there is a need to encourage non-nutritive sucking, pain relief during minor procedures being one example. Studies have shown that non-nutritive sucking is associated with shorter hospital stays, earlier transition to bottle feeding from enteral feeding, improved bottle feeding and reduction in the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Full details of the clinical background and products available from Delta Medical International are shown on the JollyPop Pacifier product page.
Helping with your unmet clinical needs:
We are very interested to work with anyone who has ideas for improving the provision of products that will promote and support developmental care. So if you have unmet needs, products that you feel are not as good as they could be, or just have new ideas, then please contact us.
