There are so many facets of neonatal care that deserve attention this month, and every month. This year, we wanted to focus on something that often surprises people outside the NICU community: many assume NICU babies are almost always premature. In fact, an estimated 40–49% of NICU admissions are full-term infants — admitted for reasons like congenital abnormalities, birth trauma, hypoglycemia, or drug exposure in utero.
That’s a huge number of families whose experience doesn’t fit the assumption.
Thousands of neonatal therapists work every day to make sure all families are seen, understood, and properly advocated for and cared for. Raising that awareness for full-term babies and families is something we can all do this month and beyond.