ARC East of England researchers launched an innovative online resource for neonatal healthcare professionals and parents, featuring research, podcasts, and parent stories that highlight the important role of communication methods in nurturing connections between premature babies and their parents in neonatal units.
Premature babies, born prior to 37 weeks, face an increased risk of developing speech, language, and communication difficulties, which can significantly affect their future educational outcomes and early social interactions. Families often spend weeks or even months in neonatal units, where intensive medical care and frequent surveillance can make it difficult for the parents to develop meaningful connections with their child. Communication plays a vital role in this engagement, yet many care environments lack a clear, consistent framework to support and promote communication development from the earliest stages of a preterm infant’s life. The Prematurity and Communication (PAC) resource aims to address this need.
Funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing, a research team from the University of Hertfordshire has developed an innovative online resource that promotes effective communication throughout the neonatal care journey. Designed for neonatal nurses, allied health professionals, students, and parents, the PAC website is the first of its kind to bring together a variety of evidence-based tools, guidance, and resources that highlight the importance of communication in neonatal care. Created in collaboration with speech and language therapists, neonatal healthcare professionals, and parents, it offers practical strategies and support to enhance communication and strengthen bonds during the critical early days.
Dr. Julia Petty, Principal Investigator of the study, said:
“Parents often rely on the knowledge of neonatal healthcare professionals, particularly when they are less able to provide direct practical care and require guidance from staff. Through our interviews with parents who have experienced neonatal care, we found that support and advice varied around communication strategies.
Dr. Julia Petty, Principal Investigator of the PAC study
“In response, our team developed an educational, web-based resource to help neonatal health professionals develop effective parent-infant communication, drawing directly from insights shared by both parents and nurses.”
Dr. Julia Petty, Principal Investigator of the PAC study
This free website, developed by Billy Liu, freelance web designer, PhD student, and lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, features a range of online resources, including publications, blogs, practical tips, podcasts, training courses, and videos based on real stories from parents of premature babies who have experience of neonatal units. These videos share first-hand accounts of how parents experience communication during neonatal care, giving healthcare professionals practical insights on how to better support parents during this challenging time.
Last year, the Government established a dedicated committee to investigate the causes and consequences of rising preterm birth rates. The resulting report, Preterm Birth: Reducing Risks and Improving Lives, acknowledges the important role of neonatal staff in encouraging parents to engage closely in their babies’ care to improve outcomes for preterm infants and their families.
Dr. Julia Petty added:
“We recognise how important it is to support parents to communicate with their baby, to help them to feel close and emotionally connected to them in the early days and beyond. Therefore, we believe our resource provides neonatal professionals with a single platform to equip them with the necessary knowledge to support parents during this time in neonatal units and beyond.”
Dr. Julia Petty, Principal Investigator of the PAC study
The resource is shaped by findings from the ARC East of England study, which explored the factors that hinder or support communication and bonding between preterm infants and their parents within neonatal units. The study involved both parents and nurses from two neonatal units within a Southeast England NHS Trust. From interviews with parents, four key themes emerged: the impact of the neonatal unit experience, different communication methods, barriers to communication, and the transition from hospital to home, during which community healthcare workers visit the parents. Nurses also identified four themes: their experiences of care, challenges in supporting parents, the importance of encouraging communication, and broader societal influences, such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, on neonatal care and parent relationships. To guide the study’s approach and resource development, a parent advisory group was formed. To date, the study has published two research papers detailing these findings in the Journal of Child Health Care and the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders.
To date, the resource has had over 1,000 visits worldwide and has been shared with the Neonatal Nurses Association UK, the Council of International Neonatal Nurses, and other leading professional organisations. Early feedback from experts has been positive. Dr. Laura Abbott, Associate Professor at the University of Hertfordshire, praised it as “such an important piece of work.’’ Rebecca Murphy, Clinical Lead Neonatal Speech and Language Therapist at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, shared:
“[The PAC resource is] a brilliant resource combining expert insight, real parent stories, and practical tools to support communication with premature babies. Thoughtful, evidence-based, and grounded in lived experience.”
Rebecca Murphy, Clinical Lead Neonatal Speech and Language Therapist at Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
The PAC research team will be releasing more podcasts featuring interviews with a range of neonatal healthcare professionals and service users. You can listen to the podcasts here. Additionally, the study has been presented at various local, national, and global events, and the findings from an evaluation of the website will be released in due course.
Access the resources on the PAC website
Get in touch with the research team by emailing: Dr. Julia Petty (j.petty@herts.ac.uk).
