Visiting your baby
Please note:
This info only applies to the neonatal unit of St Vincent General Hospital in Deinze.
As parents
As parentsAs parents, you can visit your baby at any time of the day.
As babies in our department are often small, frail or sick, they should not be exposed to any danger. Therefore, it is important to observe some rules. So, we ask you to the do the following in the dressing room:
- wash and disinfect your hands carefully;
- don a green 'personal' apron with your baby's name on it;
- put on blue overshoes.
If you feel cold or flu-like, have a fever blister or sore throat, always wear a paper mask for nose and mouth.
Contact with baby
In the first few days, you won't be able to help take care of your baby right away, but your baby will still need familiar sounds, your voice and touch. Physical contact and familiar voices from you and your partner are very important to your baby. You can touch the baby all you want. By agreement, you can take the baby on your lap or against your bare chest (kangaroo method), change, take temperature, and feed.
Feel free to bring a cuddly toy, music or a dummy to the hospital...Later, you can also give the baby a bath, let it drink from the breast or give it a bottle.
You are allowed to take photos or video recordings of your baby at any time.
Together with your partner, visit your baby as often and for as long as possible.
Are you worried, have a question or want to inquire how your baby is doing? Do not hesitate to contact our midwives: +32 (0)9 287 72 50. They are there for you day and night.
Emotional times for parents
Some parents know in advance that incubator admission will follow, while others are only confronted with it when their baby is born. Still, many mothers experience premature birth as a heavy blow. One moment you are happy because you have brought your baby into the world - the next you burst into tears and feel nothing but disappointment and helplessness. Then again, at some moments you just feel indifference.
After childbirth, the hormonal change in your body is so weighty and so sudden, that you have fluctuating moods anyway. These are more pronounced with a problematic childbirth. So you are more emotional than you would normally be.
Have you had a caesarean section? We will do everything possible to connect you with your baby as soon as possible.
As loved ones
As loved onesSiblings, relatives and friends can visit the baby behind the glass wall, during the 3pm and 6pm visiting hours.