When my twins arrived three months early, I experienced overwhelming feelings of guilt and inadequacy as a mother. Their stay in the NICU was often marked by medical instability, making it challenging for me to bond with them in typical ways. There were times when I couldn’t even hold them.
Despite the medical care taking over many of my motherly duties, I found solace in reading to my babies. I read to them before surgeries, every night before I had to leave for home, and I even read to my firstborn son, Noah, during his final moments due to complications from necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
Research supports what we naturally feel: reading provides neuroprotective advantages for infants. When parents read to their babies, they are fostering their child’s cognitive, language, and emotional development. This shared experience not only brings parents physically closer to their babies but also helps to comfort them during a challenging time. Engaged parents are more likely to feel empowered as active participants in their child’s care.
The advantages of reading extend to NICU parents as well. It offers a sense of normalcy when life feels chaotic and helps create cherished memories. This is especially true when the stories resonate with their current experiences or are familiar favorites from their own childhood.
After Noah’s passing, I longed for ways to keep his memory alive. I realized that reading had been instrumental in providing comfort during our NICU journey. Eager for other families to feel that same connection, my family initiated a library program at our NICU, donating thousands of books so that each family could receive a new story to keep each week.
Leading NICUs ensure that mothers have access to breast pumps and that premature infants receive human milk; they should also guarantee that families have access to storybooks. Reading together can be a powerful and cost-effective method to enhance infant care, promote bonding, and support overwhelmed NICU families seeking ways to nurture their children. Books should be recognized as essential tools in the NICU, not only for their immediate benefits but also for their potential to cultivate lifelong readers. By encouraging reading in the NICU, we can help establish a daily bonding ritual for families.
Having a baby in the NICU is often a transformative experience, and books can assist families in coping with trauma. Reading with our twins helped us navigate difficult diagnoses and the daily anxieties of NICU life. During our last moments with Noah, we pressed his handprints into his favorite books. Today, we read those same stories to Noah’s siblings, who enjoy seeing their hands alongside their brother’s prints.
10 Beloved Books for NICU Reading:
- Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You by Emily Brown
- You Are My I Love You by Maryann K. Cusimano
- The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
- Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
- All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon
- On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman
- The I Love You Book by Todd Parr
- You Are My Sunshine, illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church
- The Crown On Your Head by Nancy Tillman
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church
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Conclusion
Providing books to NICU babies is not just about storytelling; it’s about fostering connections, nurturing development, and creating lasting memories during a time that can be overwhelmingly difficult for families.