Ward rounds provide a great opportunity for you to be involved in your baby’s care. You can learn a lot about their progress, what treatments they require, tests they are having done or results that have come back, as well as contribute to the plan for the day.

You are the best advocate for your baby and if you feel confident once you have settled in, you are very welcome to tell the ward round team your baby’s story and how you think they are doing. This becomes even more valuable in HDU when you will know a lot about their feeds and daily routine. 

Time can be limited on ward rounds as the teams need to see all of the babies on the ward to make plans for the day as soon as possible. Therefore, there will be times when we cannot spend as much time explaining things to you or answering questions as you feel you need. In order to ensure you have enough time to learn about your baby’s condition and to ask all of the questions you may have, you can ask for a family meeting with your baby’s primary (bedcard) consultant. This can be arranged by the bedside nurse, social worker or care manager.

We will always do our best to include you as partners in your baby’s care and will share as many decisions with you as possible. Sometimes urgent or necessary clinical decisions have to be made in your baby’s best interests and it may be difficult for you to understand why, but we will explain the reasons behind these decisions to you in plenty of detail as soon as we can.