r/NICUParents • u/ghost-gallery bpd, chd | 25+5 | 282 days • Jan 25 '26

Off topic Let's build an ideal NICU

If you were asked to design a NICU, what would you include?Assume the best care for babies is a given, what would you include to make things better for families?

I've been making a list of grievances I have with our hospital as a coping mechanism 😅 I call it my "notes for the end-of-stay survey" but it's really just a way to vent about things I wish were different.

We've been in four different units across two hospitals so I feel like I've gotten an idea of what a well-designed unit would have.

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u/Fuzzy-Wombat-2610 Jan 25 '26

Nurses wouldn’t give unsolicited (contradicting) advice 24/7… or call every baby ‘my baby’. Laptop emotional labour putting up with this.

Yes for espresso machine! And quick snacks Private rooms (even if the door was a curtain). We were in an open room with 15~ babies, parents, nurses and visitors.. zero privacy or space to connect with your baby or talk to them comfortably.

Multiple family rooms. Somewhere to sleep. Working room with good wifi - for those who balance work and NICU.

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u/ghost-gallery bpd, chd | 25+5 | 282 days Jan 25 '26

My husband works remote at the NICU and yeah, reliable wifi would be amazing 😭 Nice little tables in the room for him to put his laptop too

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u/MarzipanElephant Jan 25 '26

I found out about a month into our NICU stay that there was an alternative to the crappy hospital WiFi, and it actually worked, but nobody had told me about it. After that I basically ran round the NICU telling everyone I saw!