Webcams connect babies to loved ones

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. - In the neonatal intensive care unit at Valley Hospital, 21/2-pound Sydney Grace Brock lies in her isolette, oxygen flowing from a tiny tube into her perfect nostrils, a miniature catheter pumping protein and electrolytes into her right arm.

In Essex County, 18 miles away, gathered round a computer at International Tool & Manufacturing Inc., are her father, grandparents, and great-uncle.

Streaming online on the computer screen at the family-owned precision-machine shop in Fairfield: baby Sydney, born Feb. 20, 10 weeks early.

The baby reaches up, putting her hand behind her head. The audience in Fairfield coos at her fashion pose. Sydney had gained a couple of ounces since her last appearance on the computer a day earlier, and her doting family comments on her growth.

"It's the most we've seen her moving around," said her father, Ryan, a machinist. "She looks so much bigger than they thought she would."

Technology that can bring viewers into owls' nests and give them real-time views of Times Square traffic is now being deployed by hospitals to help families bond with their fragile newborns.

The Bergen County hospital's webcam link, called Peek-a-Boo ICU, has helped a critically ill new mother see her baby from her hospital bed. It has enabled grandparents in the Philippines to gaze at the latest addition to their far-flung family.

It is allowing Sydney's parents, who live in Wayne, Passaic County, to see what is happening even when they cannot be in the intensive care nursery.

And in Morris County, Chilton Hospital - in the Pompton Plains section of Pequannock - has brought the images of premature twins to their recuperating mother with its "virtual visit webcam" program. Elsewhere in the country, two-way hookups allow parents to speak and even sing to their newborns when they cannot be beside them.

Mothers often face anxiety after delivery when they are separated from their newborns, especially if the infant requires surgery or other lifesaving care, according to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. A University of Arkansas webcam-viewing program described anecdotal evidence suggesting that mothers served by the program experienced less anxiety and more family tranquillity.

"We work very hard at having every family see every baby every day," said Frank Manginello, Valley's director of neonatology. The webcam can be used when the mother of a baby in the ICU faces her own health problems or is prevented by bad weather from getting to the hospital. It can be seen by the father who is on a military deployment or business trip.

Her 2-year-old daughter's illness kept Colleen Brock, Sydney's mother, home from the hospital one day last week.

Showing that older daughter the streaming video of her new sister also helped make the birth real for the toddler, Brock said.

Sydney is expected to be in the hospital about seven weeks. The Brocks have a password to sign in to the website, and they must schedule the five-minute video session with the nursery staff.

Then the ICU nurse or technician rolls the webcam over to the isolette and gets it started. The ICU was rewired so that the camera can be used for any of the babies in the unit.

The Valley project was funded by the hospital's Marron-Manginello Neonatal Endowment Fund.