OT’s role in the NICU: Increasing positive sensory experiences to support preterm infant neurodevelopment and parent participation

de Castro, K. N. (2022). OT's role in the NICU: Increasing positive sensory experiences to support preterm infant neurodevelopment and parent participation. SIS Quarterly Practice Connections, 7(3).

Approximately 10% of all infants are born prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). Risk factors for preterm birth include hypertension and diabetes, pregnancy at an older age (Gupta & Froeb, 2020), in-vitro fertilization (Cavoretto et al., 2018), prior preterm birth, multiple pregnancies, lack of prenatal care (Stewart et al., 2019), and sociodemographic factors such as homelessness and race/ethnicity (Gupta & Froeb, 2020; Manuck, 2017). Many preterm infants are admitted to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where they fight for their lives as they spend their second and third trimesters outside of the womb.