SLO hospital’s new webcams let families monitor fragile NICU babies anywhere, anytime
Amanda Pyle Citrin was a little over 33 weeks pregnant with twins when she and her husband, Asher Citrin, settled in for a low-key New Year’s Eve at their home in Shell Beach.
Little did the couple know, their new journey as parents was going to start early.
“I think that they thought that we were being too boring and they knew that we needed a little bit more of a party on New Year’s,” Pyle Citrin said.
On New Year’s Day, the twin boys, Bennett Citrin and Larkin Citrin, arrived nearly seven weeks before their due date. After a harrowing birth experience, the new parents had to do what every new parent dreads — leave the hospital without their babies.
“I don’t think being a new mom is easy for anybody, but being a new mom whose babies have to stay at the hospital when they send me home is just not a position that I would wish on anybody,” Pyle Citrin said, her voice heavy with emotion.
Since New Year’s Day, Bennett and Larkin have been living in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo.
Swaddled in blankets like baby burritos, the twin infants sleep in their own bed space under the watchful eye of the NICU nurses, Dr. Steve Van Scoy, the director of the Sierra Vista NICU, and sometimes even Grandma and Grandpa.
But thanks to a new piece of technology at the hospital, parents aren’t as disconnected as they would have been in the past.
That’s thanks to the NicView — a small camera system installed above infant bed that allows families to watch a live stream of their infants in the NICU, anytime and anywhere.
Sierra Vista likely the only NICU in California with NicView
The NicView was developed by Natus Medical Incorporated, a medical technology company that builds tools to support newborn health.
Sierra Vista offers the highest level of NICU care in San Luis Obispo County. It is currently the only NICU in California using the NicView camera technology, according to hospital officials.
“Usually, they’re in a town that is at least twice our size,” said Dr. Steve Van Scoy, NICU director, in a podcast produced by Tenet Health Central Coast. “And so it was really by luck and happenstance, I think, that we were able to get this program going and to end up with a great NICU that we have today.”
Although Sierra Vista is the only hospital in California known to have this technology, other Tenet Healthcare NICUs nationwide use it as well, hospital officials said.
The NicView’s tagline is “the next best thing to being there,” and health workers and NICU parents are inclined to support this statement.
The NicView allows parents like the Citrin family to tap into a live stream video of their infants while they’re in the NICU.
The ability to stay connected to NICU babies from a distance has numerous benefits for maternal-infant bonding and helps family members feel more involved in their care, according to health workers at the hospital.
Initially, nurses were a bit hesitant about the new technology that was introduced to the Sierra Vista NICU roughly six months ago, said Emily Hosford, a registered nurse and Women and Children’s Services Manager at the NICU.
The live stream is always on, except during “touch times,” where doctors or nurses are providing direct care to the infants, Hosford said.
Hosford said Natus is really good about adjusting the camera angles and zoom levels upon request for families, so nurses don’t have to spend important clinical hours adjusting the camera.
Any hesitation health workers felt about the new camera system has since dissipated, she said.
“Now since they’ve seen all the benefits to it, everybody’s in love,” she said.
How the NicView cameras works
Enrolling in the NicView program is simple. All the parents need to do is sign a consent form, allowing Sierra Vista staff to turn on the NicView camera above the infant’s bed, Hosford said.
The NicView cameras are secured with a username and password for their NicView account, which parents can share with extended family and friends, Hosford said.
This is particularly beneficial during the coronavirus pandemic, because NICU visitation at Sierra Vista is restricted to immediate parents or guardians, Hosford said.
“It’s also been really nice to be able to give all of the grandparents that access so that they can plug in and look at it,” Pyle Citrin said. “Because they can’t go in the NICU to see them, and they’re dying to get their paws on those babies.”
Recordings or still images aren’t permitted, and the NicView camera can be streamed on a laptop, smartphone or tablet — all anyone needs is the login information, a NicView-enabled device and a stable internet connection, according to a pamphlet created by NICU staff.
NicView camera promotes bonding, lactation
The idea of virtual visitation at the NICU through 24/7 remote access is relatively new, according to a 2020 study on the topic.
The results of the study show that virtual visitation technology, consistent with the NicView, has benefits for maternal-infant bonding.
The findings of this study are consistent with anecdotes from hospital workers and parents at the Sierra Vista NICU that show this bonding can extend to physical benefits for mother and baby as well.
New mothers are encouraged to be at the baby’s bedside, look a photograph of the baby and connect with their child in any way possible to stimulate lactation, Hosford said.
Pyle Citrin said she likes to pull up the twins on the NicView during the lonely, late-night hours of pumping where she would normally be at the babies’ bedside.
“I look at them all the time,” she said. “The camera is really great for things like when I’m awake in the middle of the night pumping, and there’s, like, no other way that I would be able to be in touch with them at all. ... I can pull up the cameras at 3 in the morning and look at them.
“It’s such a comfort when I can’t have them with me to be able to peek at them at least in the middle of the night.”
Dr. Van Scoy has worked at the Sierra Vista NICU for 25 years has seen newborn care technology become more sophisticated over time.
He said that milk and nutrition is essential for the fragile newborns in the NICU, so any tool that can improve bonding between mother and infant and stimulate faster milk production is beneficial to the babies.
“Milk is so critical for these kids at the ages that they are,” he said. “It really is a great benefit.”
He said that, while NicView may not be critical from a medical standpoint — it doesn’t help preterm infants stay warm or breathe easier, for example — it does have real implications from a psychosocial perspective.
“I think from the parents and psychosocial standpoint it may be very seminal because this will pave the way for ever-more miniaturized, and ever-more interactive and ever-more clear and colored videos and also more realistic things,” Dr. Van Scoy said.
“I think it’s gonna make a huge impact on the parents’ stress level and comfort for having their kids in here and for the general well-being of the whole family,” he said.
To be sure, the emotional impacts of having the twins in the NICU has been heavy for the Citrin family. Pyle Citrin said that she feels hospitals should embrace any technology that helps NICU parents feel more connected to their babies from afar.
“We’re having sort of the best version of a really crappy situation,” Pyle Citrin said. “We have all the support of having Dr. Van Scoy, who’s wonderful, and our NICU nurses, and being able to check in on a webcam is really every potentially helpful piece of making it suck less to have my little boys away from me.”
Pyle Citrin said the hospital staff hasn’t given the family a discharge date yet for the twins, but last week, both boys were able to finish a whole bottle and are starting to put on weight.
“They’ve been minding their P’s and Q’s and following my instructions to get chubby while they’re there, because I need fat little baby cheeks,” she said.
The family is optimistic that the boys will soon be settled into their home nursery and can leave life at the NICU behind them.
But they shouldn’t count on putting cameras behind them. The webcams may be gone soon, but here’s guessing they’ve got a lifetime of their parents’ photos and videos ahead.
This story was originally published January 26, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: The Sierra Vista NICU is one of multiple locations in California that uses NicView cameras. The information about NicView availability at California hospitals was incorrect.
