文摘
Children born prematurely are at risk of cognitive, neurosensory, behavioral and academic impairments. The potentially harmful effects of traditional neonatal settings and the separation of baby and parents have been recognized as having an impact on the developing brain. Developmental family-centered care and environmental strategies emerged in response to these findings. Developmental family-centered care programmes have proven their benefit and hospitals are changing, but there is still a big gap between knowledge and practice. In many of these units, the focus of care is very often technically directed and many parents are still considered as mere “visitors”. In this paper, the scientific arguments are addressed to justify focusing on developmental care and supporting parents in neonatal units. The second part covers the Belgian experience where the government decided to promote breastfeeding in maternity wards and to support the implementation of developmental care in neonatal units. This project is still to be evaluated, but it tends to show that governmental support has an impact on changing care practices.KeywordsPretermDevelopmental careBaby-friendly Hospital InitiativeNIDCAP®Public health care