NICU
Family Visitation
The moment your baby is born, you have the overwhelming feeling to be surrounded by your family to share the experience with. This feeling stays true the entire time the infant is in the hospital.
When a baby is admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit, chances are the baby will stay longer than the mother. This allows the opportunity for parents to bring in visitors to see their baby.
Every NICU has a visitation policy that must be followed. Each one is unique to its respective unit.
Most neonatal units will allow visitors to only visit while accompanied by the parents of the baby. And further, to reduce exposure, they may limit the number of visitors physically at the bedside, as well as limiting the amount of visitors per day. This can include immediate and/or extended family.
Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc will more than likely have visitaton limited. Siblings of the baby may or may not have limited visitation. Some units allow the other children of the parents to come in without restriction due to the value of being together as a family, as well as to keep moms and dads from having to avoid forced split time with the baby so the other can watch the other children.
There are some units that will allow grandparents to visit without the parents supervision.
Overall, expect there to be some guidelines on who can and cannot visit. This can include family members, so make sure to talk to your baby's nurse or the charge nurse if you have any questions.