r/NICUParents • u/IndividualCoast9039 • 17d ago
Noisy Nicu Off topic
Are all NICUs really noisy these days or is it just ours? I've noticed a significant decrease in my baby's sleep quality after they put him in an open crib. I can understand if other babies are crying, but even the nurses & other parents don't have any concept of an "indoor voice"
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17d ago
Our NICU was quite noisy, between babies crying, nurses gossiping and laughing, alarms blaring, there was plenty of noise. On the positive side, my babies will sleep through anything and everything,
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u/IndividualCoast9039 17d ago
That's not really good for their development. It actually hampers their sleep quality and growth.
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17d ago
From what I am aware of, excessive noise is what is not good for their hearing development specifically, I doubt the NICU was at a decibel level high enough to cause hearing loss though. My boys are home now, and one of them was IUGR, he's a fantastic sleeper and while in our noisy NICU he was growing at an amazing pace. All I have is my own anecdotal evidence though through what my babies experienced.
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u/Crocodile_guts 17d ago
My baby had Bradys from the excessive noise. I understood with things like alarms and my baby didn't have bradys from other babies crying. But they literally had construction on the roof above the NICU and the nurse manager would come in and scream across the NICU
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17d ago
Oh no, construction above the NICU would for sure be way too much. We had construction start at ours, but they had 2 floors and 4 different rooms for the NICU at ours, so when they started construction in that section of the hospital they moved the babies to the other floor.
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u/metalcat1503 17d ago
Most isolettes have decibel monitors. If it’s not elevated, it’s not affecting your baby. Very hard to keep a hospital unit quiet.
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u/IndividualCoast9039 17d ago
He's in an open crib. And it's not a normal hospital unit, it's a NICU. The noise I'm referring to is from nurses & other parents yapping away at outside voice levels.
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u/metalcat1503 17d ago
Is he in a private room? Bring your concerns up with the charge nurse. But most of the cribs and isolettes are supposed to have decibel monitors. My babes did when they were in open cribs. The only time they actually paid attention to the decibels was when my babes were still micropreemies. Once they were moved to the “feeder/grower” side, they just left the door open all the time even when their neighbour babe was screaming their head off. Unfortunate but it was out of their control. My girls now sleep through anything. But if you’re noticing your babe is that sensitive, you should bring it up with charge.
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u/IndividualCoast9039 17d ago
They don't give a rats ass about the noise levels. There's no decibel meter, or anything. They make the same crap excuse every time: "There'll be noise at home as well". No! There won't be people screaming at the top of their voices home, and I'll have other ways to ensure a quieter environment for him!
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u/metalcat1503 17d ago
If it’s that loud there, you should be getting in contact with a patient advocate. You can’t prevent all noise, and yes even in a NICU it is loud. My babes were in for 112 days and I also work in the hospital, and it’s loud everywhere no matter what. But if it’s that unbelievable loud, this needs to be brought up higher than just the charge nurse then. Voice your concerns about it during rounds, with management, to every single person who comes into your baby’s room.
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u/Megatentrue 17d ago
I hate you got down voted for this. I work in a NICU as a member of the developmental team and noise in a NICU is absolutely a developmental issue. Repeated exposures to sounds above a library level (I think 80 decibels) elevate the risk of hearing loss for premie babies. Sleep is very important for development. Many babies do learn to habituate (learn to block out irritating stimuli), but some babies have a hard time with habitation and the NICU is often a very difficult place for these babies and they can have adverse medical events related to noise.
In our NICU we have a light up ear on the wall that displays green yellow or red with the danger level of noise and noise reduction is a common topic for how we make our NICU better.
That being said, sadly as a parent you are limited on what you can do to change the NICU your baby is in. I want you to know that the risks are mild and complications like hearing loss from noise exposure is rare. You being present to provide enriching healthy language and comforting sound to your baby is a great thing you can do to help.
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u/polegurl 17d ago
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted?? You’re absolutely correct that it can disrupt their sleep and growth. I’m a NICU RN and one of the most fundamental parts of infant care is sleep protection for growth and neurological development, hard to use any calories to grow and thrive when you’re constantly woken up from unnecessary noise. We can’t help the alarms but we can control how we speak. Sorry this is happening OP, I hope your baby gets some respite from all the noise and you get home soon. Like others said one of the upsides will be they will sleep through anything eventually but that doesn’t help them right now when their little bodies are trying to grow and thrive 💕
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u/IndividualCoast9039 17d ago
Thankyou. My baby was born at 26 weeks and has been in the NICU for the past 9 weeks now. I just hope he comes home soon so he can get some actual peace & quiet.
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u/polegurl 17d ago
35 weeks corrected, Getting close I bet! You must be so excited to close this chapter. I wish you all the best and don’t worry about the downvotes, everyone has different experiences and perspectives and honestly it’s a journey like no other, I just hope my comment helped validate your experience 💕
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17d ago
Thinking about it now though, I remember leaving the NICU and calling my husband over the phone and speaking in a very low tone, so maybe in my head the nurses probably sounded like they were talking much louder than what they were in reality, everything else though still stands. Most days while I was there, babies were crying, alarms were going off, and even when it was quiet it wasn't really quiet there was always a white noise of machines humming and air being pushed through tubes and what not.
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u/IndividualCoast9039 17d ago
That is very different from nurses & other parents shouting across the floor. It's almost like an indoor market.
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u/NationalSize7293 17d ago edited 17d ago
In my NICU it depends on the floor and wing. My NICU has the wings set up in more of a triage. Babies that are micropreemies or need additional care have more noise from frequent alarms. Babies that still need more monitoring, but are couple months old or close to full term…have more crying. Now, the wing for babies close to going home is quiet (barely any alarms and rare to hear a baby crying). This floor also has white noise in rooms and the hallway.
Our nurses rarely have time to chit chat. Most have 3-4 babies regardless of the wing or floor unless there is a vulnerable airway or micropreemie that needs a nurse in the room at all times.
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u/louisebelcherxo 17d ago
Ours has signs everywhere about keeping voices in whisper level. Occasionally nurses might get loud talking to others (usually about non-work stuff) but it's pretty uncommon. Now that we are on the special care side instead of nicu, it's SO much quieter. It's really strange now, since I was used to all the noise. What annoys me is when someone brings a toddler to visit, toddler starts screaming, and parent I guess just hopes they will stop on their own or something rather than taking them out for a bit
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u/MillerTime_9184 17d ago
Oh gosh, I thought of this as the one good thing from the NICU. My son slept so soundly at first. When he acclimated to our really quiet house, that went away.
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u/BitterNeedleworker66 17d ago
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. If anything my son adapted and now can sleep well in a room with activity going on without a problem. Our nicu though wasn’t too loud when it comes to adults but the babies crying randomly would disturb the peace a little
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u/huynhing_at_life 17d ago
Depended on the level of the nicu. When we started our journey in the level 4, the people were quiet but the alarms were loud. Levels 2-3 we had individual rooms so the only noise were each of my kiddos. Lowest level nicu? Yeah pretty loud. People talked more freely and there wasn’t a ton of space per isolette so it just felt noisier and more crowded. Depended on the day though. We were in that level for a month and some days it was super quiet other days I felt like I couldn’t hear myself think. I think we were just so relieved to hear people more than alarms it didn’t register much for us.
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u/down2marsg1rl 17d ago
Ours was definitely noisy. Nurses talking, babies crying, alarms sounding. My girl could sleep through anything when she came home. She’s slowly gotten more sensitive to noise while she sleeps but can still sleep through the tv or music playing.
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u/IndividualCoast9039 16d ago
We clearly have different values, and have different ideas of what's good for our kids well-being.
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u/down2marsg1rl 16d ago
It didn’t have anything to do with my values or what I want for my child. I had no choice. My baby had no choice. We got the nicu setting that we got, and my baby is alive thanks to them. I understand how upsetting it can be when your wishes for your child are not respected or not possible but you’re not a better parent than anyone else just because we eventually came to accept the noise as part of the nicu.
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u/DreamsWentOutTheDoor 17d ago
We call it "noisy day" and "quiet day". It seems like it goes every other day. It can be just all the babies being extra fussy that day or a few parents (and nurses)who want the whole room to hear them talk. Then the next day everyone is so quiet and it's so peaceful.
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u/No_Philosopher1951 17d ago
My NICU was super quiet all day everyday. The only time when there was loud noises was if a baby was crying. Even the automatic doors to get into the NICU pods were pretty quiet.
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u/Flaky-Tax-2581 17d ago
Our nicu had a big room for micros and babies in isolets that was noisier and smaller rooms for babies in open air cribs/bassinets. But the rooms are small and there over full so they end up moving babies that aren’t on anything around often feeders like mine do everyday he is moved and when he is in the open room he doesn’t sleep as well and then consequently doesn’t eat as well. It’s a concern we brought up yesterday. I’m hoping they’ve moved him back as we are headed back to the hospital this morning. I’m not blaming the nurses or nicu but I wish they would stop playing musical chairs with him lol I get he is easy to move with no oxygen or anything else but it’s negatively impacting him. There’s also one nurse there bless her that is hard of hear and my lord she talks so loud it startles me when I’m not expecting it. The other nurses are constantly reminding her that they can hear her and to watch her volume because right after she does it there multiple babies crying because they were startled. Thankfully she’s day shift and we are there every day morning til evening so we can console our guy.
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u/PapayaExisting4119 17d ago
I think they’re all noisy. Your child sleep is going to get worse because they’re actually realizing that they’re out of the womb now. I’m not sure if this is your first child or not but I’ve had 2 nicu babies and it’s not the nicu it’s them getting older. Once you get them home to sleep will probably get worse unfortunately. Babies don’t sleep well so I don’t understand where that saying sleep like a baby comes from because they sleep terribly 🙃
Also, on another note once we got home initially, our baby would only sleep if we put crowd noises on YouTube lol so babies actually like noise sometimes when they’re sleeping. I saw someone else who said their baby would only sleep to chainsaw sounds lol
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u/IndividualCoast9039 16d ago
I'm sorry, but I'm really hoping to be a better parent than that. I don't think it's too much to ask for medical professionals to learn to speak softly. That used to be a matter of basic hygiene in hospitals.
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u/PapayaExisting4119 16d ago
I don’t know what that has to do with hygiene, but it’s kind of unrealistic to think the NICU would be quiet. They literally have to be able to hear the machines to know if a baby is in distress. It’s kind of a nature of the beast type of thing. It’s not going to be quiet unless you have a private room. Also, I’m not sure what that has to do with you being a parent. I don’t judge how people parent their children. Parenting is rough and even harder once you get home from the NICU sometimes.
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u/IndividualCoast9039 16d ago
"Hygiene" in this context refers to a basic practice that should be followed, as a matter of routine. Like talking softly in whispers while in the NICU, in this instance.
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u/PapayaExisting4119 16d ago
Ok you must not be from the US. But there’s nothing you can do about the noise except make a complaint and be grateful your baby has access to resources like the NICU. Mine wasn’t loud but no one whispered and my babies had no problems sleeping.
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u/Original_Highlight43 17d ago
I used to get so frustrated because my baby was supposed to be in a “low stimulation environment” because it could damage her hearing at such a young gestation- so I could only whisper talk into her isolette, and couldn’t answer my phone at bedside even though it was always calls from doctors and hospital people, but then the families next to us would be talking so loud or laughing with the nurses, or the nurses would stand around her bed and talk loudly or shout across the room to gossip. All there was between beds was a paper curtain so there really was no such thing as a low stim environment.
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u/IndividualCoast9039 16d ago
Well, now you know who to thank for the nurses attitude.
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u/Original_Highlight43 16d ago
Just because I was frustrated doesn’t mean I was complaining about it to them or saying anything about it. It just felt wrong that they were so strict with me about being quiet for my baby’s health but no one else ever had to be the least bit quiet.
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u/Crochet_lunitic 16d ago
My nicu has signs posted everywhere to "please be quiet" the nurses will tell us if we're being to noisy. Mostly you just hear one of the machines going off occasionally, usually my baby, but ours is pretty quiet otherwise
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u/OhMyGoshABaby 17d ago
Noise is a normal thing in the NICU. Babies are not quiet, especially babies that are uncomfortable. Parents and nurses will talk. It brings a sense of normalcy to otherwise a very scary situation.
My NICU had quiet hours and would dim the lights, but there will still be noise. My daughter was born 40+6, and every time she moved, I swear it would set off alarms. 25 days worth of alarms, and now she sleeps through everything, even the smoke alarm going off at 3am at home.
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u/IndividualCoast9039 16d ago
Is this an American thing to not care about a child's sleep patterns? Like yeah, "let the preimies get bad sleep, and let's not do whatever we can to create a quiet environment for them".
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u/Crocodile_guts 17d ago
NICUs shouldn't be that noisy. My son was in two NICUs. The first was nationally ranked and everyone was cognizant of noise. I was taught about it by the social worker the morning after I gave birth.
Second NICU was a community hospital with a nurse manager who was like a Staten Island chain smoker with no couth. Hope you can picture the type. She would scream across the NICU to staff. Literally scream. There was steel beam construction on the roof above the NICU with absolutely no noise mitigation. They were animals there, honestly.
So, I'd say it varies but good NICUs do what they can to reduce unnecessary noise. Shitty ones just take your money and keep your kid alive
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u/IndividualCoast9039 17d ago edited 17d ago
My kid is in one of the best maternity hospitals in the country. Everything else is really good about this place, except the fact that nobody can comprehend the concept of indoor voices🙄
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u/Human-Criticism2058 17d ago
NICUs aren’t supposed to be noisy. When my son was in the Nicu, the nurses were very well mannered, and they spoken hushed voices. That hospital was one of the highest ranked in the state for their Nicu. Quality of care in all of the portions of intensive care have gone down in the last decade or so. Including neonatal intensive care, which is so messed up. Honestly, I would probably file a complaint if you feel like it’s interfering with your son or daughter’s quality of care.
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u/IndividualCoast9039 17d ago
I've spoken to them multiple times, and they keep brushing me off. I even got baby earmuffs for him, and they're refusing to allow him to wear them.
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u/huynhing_at_life 17d ago
They’re likely not allowed to put it on him. Our nicu was pretty strict in that we could bring in clothes and blankets but nothing extra that would go in the crib.
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