You will be at home in a safe enviroment with your baby.

Your baby will go from eating with a feeding tube to eating himself/herself either from the breast or bottle. Prehome care ends when your baby is succesfully eating by himself/herself and thriving.

This period demands patience from your side but it also allows you to get closer to your baby and learning all its signals, while feeling like a family in your own home.

Before going on prehome care, you have do be comfortable with your baby and take care of it for a couple of days in a family room in our deparment. During these days you will have the reponsibilty for the care of your baby. You also have to be comfortable with the feeding tube.

When going on prehome care, your baby will technically be discharged from our department to instead being followed in our clinic. You will still be in close contact with the staff of our deparment either through meetings in the unit or through virtual meetings. You can also combine these two methods of contact. Normally, we have 2 contacts per week and it will be with one of your contact nurses.

The time of the meetings is flexible and together we find a sutiable time and the best solution for your family. During the meetings we will adjust the babys breast or bottle plan, talk about your experience at home and follow up on necessary questions or topics. A meeting normally takes 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Some babies need to have blood samples or controls by the ophthalmologist/ eye doctor and other specialists during their prehome care.

Before discharging to prehome care, the pediatrician will examine your baby. This happens again when prehome care ends.

At discharging you will recieve assistive devices but you still need to rent or buy a breastpump, and prepare your home for the baby's arrival.

You will be trained in giving your baby milk by tube and have knowledge of your baby's signals in the feeding situations before going home.

When is the best time for a good feeding by breast or with bottle? When is the baby saying no, and when is the baby telling you that the tube feeding is going too fast, or that he/she doesn't want more?

As a mother you need to be confident with evaluating your baby at the breast. When is it effective breastfeeding? And when is your baby using your breast as a pacifier?

If your baby is eating by bottle, you both need to be confident with giving the bottle. Your baby needs to eat a least 6-8 times a day. This will be discussed with your contact nurse.

During the meetings the contact nurse will make plans for your baby's journey from feeding tube to eating by itself. The daily volume of milk and the amount of milk given on the tube will also be adjusted.

Your baby should have 4-6 wet diapers a day and feces daily. I your baby only breatfeeds, it is normal with fewer feces diapers. You will document this in the chart given by the department.

This information is very important for us and how we will care for the baby. If you are in doubt about your baby's meals, or the baby dosen't eat like he/she normally does then contact the deparment by phone.

The breastmilk can be stored in a container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Afterward you can freeze the milk and then it is durable for 6 months. When you unfreeze the milk, the durable time is 1 day.

We recommend that you as parents talk about your expectations on coming home. How are you going to divide the everyday tasks at home, and how can you best help each other while taking care of your baby as well? It will be hard at first but we are always here to help.

You need to prioritize that mom will need to be relieved during the day, so her main priorities are breastfeeding, pumping and trying get some rest as well. It can be hard. Therefore, it is important to ask for help from your family or close friends.

Maybe they can help cleaning, shop or babysit older siblings from time to time? If there are older siblings, remember to include them as much as possible.

Your baby needs rest to grow and mature, so it is important to limit the amount of guests. Your baby needs to focus on getting better at eating by itself. As your baby's immune system is weak, it is best not to expose he/she to illness/germs in public.

Your baby still has great benefit of skin-to-skin with you as parents, so prioritize this every day at least once a day.

Skin-to-skin helps to decrease stress with both baby and parent. It allows you to learn about each other through touch, sight, smell and hearing, and it promotes bonding and breastfeeding.

The method encourages your baby to spend more time in deep sleep and quiet alert. Skin-to-skin strengthens the baby’s digestion and immune system. Therefore, you can't spend too much time skin-to-skin with your baby.

In order to protect your baby from sickness, it is important that your guests don't have a cold or are sick. If you or the siblings are having a cold or are sick, then decrease the close contact. A good hand hygiejne at home is also important.

Remember that you know your baby best. If you are in doubt about your baby's health, contact the deparment.

If you experience that your baby is vomitting, has a fever or changes in its eating, crying or sleep patterns, contact the deparment.

Beside the health, it is also important to metion that if you are uncomfortable in any situation at home, contact the deparment.

If your baby starts to have breathing problems and change in skin tone, take your baby up and stimulate him/her by rubbing his/her back. If that dosen't help, then turn your baby on his/her stomach and give a little slap on the back, so he/she can spit up any milk or slime.

If your baby still dosen't breathe, and the skin tone turns into a blue colour, call 112. After the call contiune the first aid you have been instructed to do from the department.

It is important that your baby is warm enough, so that he/she is comfortable and doesn't spend energy on staying warm.

We recommend:

• That the room temperature to be around 22 degrees
• That you avoid drafts (which means that the baby is not in the room when airing)
• That the cradle is not near a window
• That the room where you bathe the baby is warmer than 22 degrees
• That your baby's clothes is tight on his/her body with no bare areas including arm and legs
• That you use wool clothing on your baby
• That your baby gets extra clothes on and is covered when going outside
• That your car is heated before your baby enters it during wintertime
• That your baby is allowed in the pram, when he/she weighs more than 2 kilos. Between 2-3 kilos your are allowed to go for walk for 30 minutes. Over 3 kilos your baby can sleep in the pram for over 30 minutes.
• That you feel your baby's temperature in the back of the neck and on the stomach. You only measure the temperature with a thermometer if you are concerned.

It is necessary to maintain a good hygiene around your baby's meals. Therefore, you must clean the pumping equipment, bottles and syringes in cold water and soap before it is boiled. Alternativly, you can clean it in the dishwasher but it needs to be boiled afterwards.

The pacifiers have to be boild once a day.

During prehome care you will use our special syringes, which can be used several times. Our staff will teach you how to clean them after use.

When driving your baby must be in a car seat. When you buy the car seat, look for recommendations for premature babies. It will give more options to adjust the seat.

It can be a good idea to bring a lift or a pram for the control/meeting in the deparment during prehome care. It is very important for your baby that the time in the car seat is kept to a minimum.

The safest place for the car seat is on the back seat with an adult beside. If you are driving alone, the car seat can be placed on the passenger seat, but be aware of the airbags. They must be turned off.

It is also important that the car seat restraints are closet to the baby. That means no outerwear or quilt underneath the restraints.

To make sure that the car seat is appropiate for your baby, it needs to have sufficient support for him/her without flexion of the neck, and the restraints must be rigth above the his/her shoulder. If you can get more than two fingers under the restraints, the car seat is not secure.