Episode 176: The SCC Pod - Supporting Parents of Premature Infants

Dr. Maya Szombat, a child psychiatrist working in London, a NBAS trainer and practitioner,  describes her work in maternity and neonatology settings, supporting parents of newborns and premature babies.

The Neonatologist Dr. Jaclyn Ruggiero talks about her care of critically ill newborns with complex medical needs in the NICU, while also promoting practices that strengthen the infant-caregiver relationship.  She will explain how these early experiences support the infants’ regulation and their connection with their caregivers. 

Prof M Angeles Cerezo, An Internationally Recognized Expert in Early Parent-Child Interactions talks about her journey from research to a practice of helping parents with the challenges and joys of parenting babies.

Lauryl Ramakrishnan, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and Lactation Consultant in Pediatric Primary Care and Lactation Medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance gives us her insights into helping new mothers successfully nurture their babies, in that way building their self-confidence, their feelings of comfort and safety, and ultimately strengthening the mother-infant bond. Breastfeeding can be particularly challenging with premies, because premies can have a harder time breastfeeding, and also because it is even more critical for them to reach and maintain a healthy weight than healthy term babies.

Dr. Ana Mayen, a Salvadoran neonatologist, talks about her experience caring for preterm babies in El Salvador. She is a major member of our SCC team at the Casa de Vida, the residence for young pregnant teens in El Salvador. Since pregnant teens are a high risk group for preterm births as well as other complications, her experience and knowledge has been extremely important to us.Dra. Mayen is a Salvadorean pediatric neonatologist currently working at the Instituto Salvadoreño del Seguro Social to create preventive programs in childhood, through neonatal screening tools, to the follow up and care of affected children.  Dra Ana is the perfect person to begin this podcast series because she is passionate about babies and especially premature babies. She has had years of experience working with newborns. She has studied and lectured on neonatal palliative care. She is my close colleague, and friend, in El Salvador and was the first Salvadoran colleague who really connected with me in the goal of supporting healthy births and early childhood in El Salvador. 

Dr. Hanife Akal talks about her family vacations in Turkey—especially summer vacations shared by both sides of her extended family.

Dr. Shazia Parveen talks about how she celebrates the holiday of Eid in Pakistan and how she helped the children flood survivors celebrate life by planting trees to heal the earth.

Bob McDonell, the Director of Mi Casa Kids El Salvador talks about the holiday traditions of his childhood in the U.S. and now how Christmas is celebrated in El Salvador by the children at Mi Casa and by his family in San Salvador.

Dr. Carlotta Bettancourt describes an innovative group therapy model for children on the Autism Spectrum paired with volunteer high school mentors.

In our next episode of the series “Autism Today”, Professor Sylvie Goldman, of the Child Neurology and Cognitive Neurosciences Division of the Department of Neurology at Columbia University, talks about her work related to movement disorders and the identification of autism in girls.