Video: Baby Harry and dad Simon using one of the jackets 10 minutes after Harry’s birth at Nottingham City Hospital.
A new ‘baby jacket’ being used in Nottingham hospitals allows parents to have intimate skin-to-skin contact with their newborn babies.
The innovative top, designed to be used in operating theatres, features a buttoned-up front. It can be undone to allow mums and dads to have intimate contact with their newborns, without taking their shirts off completely.
It comes after many parents and relatives told the hospital they wanted to feel more involved with births, even when babies are delivered in theatre, as they saw this close contact as a vital way of bonding with their children.
Kim Hope, from who works in the maternity operating theatres at Nottingham City Hospital said: “The standard tops that we wear in theatres weren’t really conducive for skin to skin contact, because the midwife couldn’t see the baby and often the tops are ill-fitting.
“We get same sex partners, we get mums coming in with their daughters; it gives them a bit of dignity so they’re not sitting there bare-chested.”
The jacket has recently been shortlisted in the Patient Experience Network National Awards, or PENNA.
Simon Riley, whose wife Liz gave birth to their son Harry by caesarean section in theatre at Nottingham City Hospital on January 29, described the new top as “absolutely brilliant”.
“As a dad, just being able to take part and getting skin-to-skin contact is fantastic,” he said.
“It’s good because you don’t usually get the chance to be involved too much, so it saves you from feeling like a spare part.”
The jacket is being used at both Nottingham City Hospital and the Queen’s Medical Centre after maternity staff developed the idea and won the backing of managers at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Bex Wine, a support worker at Nottingham City Hospital who helped develop the idea, said: “We looked into finding something that was popper front, soft and disposable so that parents could enjoy skin-to-skin contact with baby.
“It was a much safer way because the midwife can see the baby.”
