Our Corporate Sponsors
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
In the spirit of serving neonatal therapists all over the world, we thank the following NANT 365 Corporate Sponsors for their year-long support, commitment and vision.
We can’t serve the babies in our care without safe, innovative products and services.
Thank you for your ongoing dedication to excellence as we collectively strive to improve quality of life for premature and medically fragile infants everywhere.
Platinum Sponsors
Innara Health
Innara Health(TM) (formerly KCBioMedix(R)) is an innovative leader in neurodevelopmental care. The company’s flagship product, the FDA-approved NTrainer System(R), is the first and only technology that assesses and reinforces non-nutritive suck (NNS) in newborns and infants born prematurely in critical care settings. Developed from 20 years of extensive research, the NTrainer System is used by many top-tier children’s hospitals and academic medical centers to improve the quality of care for babies born preterm.
The NTrainer System uses groundbreaking technology to accurately assess and therapeutically promote NNS – a vital skill linked to faster transitions to oral feeds, more rapid weight gain, shortened hospital stays and reduced hospitals costs. It is revolutionizing NICU and CTICU feeding for premature infants.
Neonatal therapists use the NTrainer System as both predictive and therapeutic technology during gavage feeding, and before breast or bottle feeding. It offers therapists a data-driven method to both measure and reinforce the preterm infant’s NNS feeding skills.
Assessment: The NTrainer System provides standardized, objective, quantitative results of the infant’s NNS organization. On-screen data and printed reports empower neonatal therapists to make more informed decisions using reliable data.
Therapy: The NTrainer System provides a clinically proven ororhythmic stimulation therapy to reinforce NNS. Studies prove this type of treatment effectively improves NNS development and oral feeding success in preterm infants who are at risk for oromotor dysfunction.
To learn more about how the NTrainer System improves health outcomes through innovation for the world’s most vulnerable population – premature infants – visit us at the NANT conference or online at Innarahealth.com.
Contact Information
Donna Payne
Business Development
Innara Health™
dpayne@innarahealth.com www.innarahealth.comGold Sponsors
GE Healthcare Maternal-Infant Care
With a shared passion, healthcare providers worldwide rely on GE Healthcare Maternal-Infant Care as their preferred partner to deliver clinically-appropriate, cutting-edge care solutions. Innovative products, exceptional service and clinical education combine to empower healthcare professionals to anticipate, understand and respond to the unique and changing needs of mothers, babies and their families.
For over 50 years, GE Healthcare Maternal-Infant Care has offered advanced technology and innovative designs that help meet the demanding clinical care needs in Labor & Delivery and Neonatal Intensive Care. GE’s products include the Giraffe* and Panda* lines of incubators and warmers, the Corometrics* maternal-fetal monitors, resuscitation and phototherapy systems, and the Carescape* vital signs monitors for neonates.
For more information about our products and services, visit us at www.gehealthcare.com.
Contact Information
Wendy Slatery
Director of Marketing, Maternal Infant Care at GE Healthcare
Gold Sponsors
Philips Mother & Child Care
Your passion, our commitment
From the hospital to the home, Philips is committed to delivering the next generation of care for mother and child, right from the beginning. We share your passion for doing all you can to provide the best care possible, whatever the course of a new life. And we’re committed to providing you with innovative, clinically proven solutions and a broad range of support.
For more than 40 years, Philips has helped caregivers deliver the comprehensive care mothers and babies deserve, whether it’s basic care for a healthy mom or intensive treatment for your most fragile preemie. We recognize that addressing immediate concerns is just as critical as providing long-term developmental well-being.
And our innovative, evidence-based solutions are developed to support a baby’s growth, while helping newborns bond with parents and family. In the hospital, Philips breakthrough imaging and monitoring products, developmentally supportive NICU and PICU solutions, and advanced clinical information systems help you plan better, work more efficiently, and make more informed clinical decisions. When it’s time to go home, Philips is there with nursing, feeding, soothing, jaundice management, and monitoring solutions you can use to help mothers, babies and their families get off to a healthy start.
Contact Information
Jodi Steverman
Sr. Manager, Strategic Planning and Programs
jodi.steverman@philips.comThe National Association of Neonatal Therapists (NANT) is a network created specifically for neonatal occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists. NANT provides multiple ways for neonatal therapists to connect, learn, mentor and inspire while advancing this focused field of therapy on a national level.
NANT News
2 Unforgettable NICU Dads – And a Tribute to All
You likely thought of him this weekend.
Your dad.
Or the man who was more like a father to you than your own. Or your husband – the father of your unique and beautiful kids.
We celebrated them, called them, mourned the loss of them.
At some point during Father’s Day, a whole different set of dads crept into my consciousness.
NICU dads.
Whether I’ve heard them speak at conferences, worked with them in the NICU or read their (few and far between) books, collectively they’ve chiseled lessons in my mind and heart.
Here are 2 stories that changed me: (Some details changed to protect privacy.)
1. Courage Redefined
His young wife died suddenly, necessitating emergency delivery of their son. He sat stunned day after day in the NICU. He held his tiny son skin to skin, a sight that left staff tearful and hopeful all in the same moment.
There is nothing that prepared him for this. (Nothing that prepared us for it either.)
Yet there were fleeting flecks of hope.
The first time the son opened his eyes long enough to focus on his dad’s face. The first bottle. The broad smile of a new dad lost in the irresistible cuteness of his son, taking photo after photo. In those moments the burden of sadness was lifted.
In the NICU we gather those moments like life rings.
We watched him store those moments as gratitude rather than bitterness. We grew from his example.
This strength is unspoken, especially in dads. And often uncelebrated.
He taught me that courage is vulnerability in action.
2. Communication Heals
I read the book Coming to Term by William Woodwell years ago.
This father’s account of he and his wife having twins born at 24 weeks taught me many things, this being but one:A NICU dad is split in two.
He’s equally fraught about his wife and children. Who does he take care of first? Where should he be? When is it ok to leave the NICU and go to work? If they live hours away from the NICU how often should he travel to the NICU while still trying to make ends meet? Will his wife survive her condition? Will his daughters survive their extreme prematurity?
Thanks Mr. Woodwell, for serving up a whole new perspective. For giving me a glimpse into the unique perspective of that divided (or multiplied?) worry and responsibility.
Your story sits on a shelf of favorite books in my office. I work differently with NICU families due to your searing honesty.Communication improves lives.
_____
These are just 2 stories of hundreds I could tell you about NICU dads, the men that belong to a club they never intended to join.
They crave information, a little joking around here and there to break the tension, a couple hours out with a friend to talk about anything but the NICU or every detail of it. (Oh, and getting a chance to hold their babies without feeling like they’re ‘taking’ the opportunity from mom!)
Their tears are often reserved for time alone in the car or in those moments right before sleep, when fear creeps in with the darkness.
Cheers to you, to all of you. For teaching us more than you ever signed up for.
And most of all, for being able to look at your fragile newborn and rewrite the story of fatherhood with hope and a huge dose of what it really means to be brave.
What’s Your Story?
I’m writing this from one of my favorite places in the world- a little island off the coast of North Carolina for a family vacation we invest in every year. A small price for stepping away from the chaos, breathing …