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Review: Baby's Day allows you to track feeding and other vital newborn stats
It's hard taking care of a newborn -- long hours, little sleep and the never-ending cycle of feeding, sleeping and changing diapers. If you are a new mom, do yourself a favor and download Baby's Day from Anne Halsall. Baby's Day is designed for moms of newborns who need to track all those little details that ensure your baby is growing as he or she should. The first thing you'll likely use after you launch the app is its timer, which lets you specify which side you are nursing on so you can keep your milk supply even. Before you start nursing your baby, just hit the big "Left" or "Right" start button (even with your arms full of baby, the buttons are easy to press) and the timer will start ticking off the seconds. When you are done feeding, hit stop to log the session. No more looking at a clock and trying to remember when you started and when you stopped, as the app does that for you. The timer can also be used for pumping, you just get to select from "Left," "Right" or "Both" to keep track of your pumping session. The highlight of Baby Day's is its logging feature that displays each nursing session, each pumping session, every diaper change and more in a running list. The log is more than just a list. It includes important details like the amount of milk produced while pumping, the time spent nursing and whether a diaper was wet or dry. All items in the list can be edited as needed. I especially like the icons, which are based on the international symbols. They make it easy to distinguish between a left and right nursing session, a left/right or both pumping session and so on. It's these little details that are so useful, but often overlooked in similar apps. Baby's Day also has a useful "Trends" view that gives you a week-long overview of your baby's schedule. The color-coded activities allow you to quickly see how often your newborn is eating, how frequently you are changing diapers and so on. It's not as detailed as the log, but it's helpful to see the big picture. Sometimes you pick up on parts of your baby's behavior that you would miss if you were only looking at a running log. Last but not least is a baby section that tracks your little one's vital statistics like height, weight and age. Oh and if you have twins or triplets, no worries! The app will let you track more than one baby. All these features are packaged into an app that is visually pleasing and easy to use, which is exactly what you need as a new mom. You already have a lot on your plate and learning how to use a complicated app should not be an added burden. You can download Baby's Day from the iOS App Store for US$2.99. It's a must-have if you are a new mom or a mom-to-be.
Hospital uses iPads to help moms stay in contact with newborns
As part of a program called BabyTime, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles recently deployed iPads in its neonatal intensive care unit to enable mothers to see their newborns and interact with hospital staff when they can't do so in person. Infants are typically placed in the NICU when they are born prematurely or have other complications that require specialized care and supervision. In some circumstances, the condition of the mother might preclude her from being allowed or able enough to visit her newborn in the NICU. Such scenarios might arise when a new mother has post-operative complications, an infection which may pose a risk to the newborn or is otherwise not yet well enough to leave her bed. Cedars-Sinai notes that approximately 20 to 30 percent of new mothers who undergo C-sections "do not feel well enough to travel from their bed in the Labor and Delivery unit to the NICU for the first 24 to 48 hours." With the iPad, however, these mothers can now see their newborn and, just as importantly, interact with the nurses and doctors keeping an eye on their baby. All in all, it's a great way to keep patients more involved and informed while also adding an overall sense of comfort to what can otherwise be a stressful and worrisome situation. Charles F. Simmons Jr., MD, who chairs the Cedars-Sinai Department of Pediatrics, touted the new program in a press release: BabyTime will help bridge communication with the family and the baby's medical team and is an excellent use of technology to help new mothers bond with their babies, even when they cannot be physically at their babies' bedside. When doctors and nurses are treating a newborn in the NICU, mom can be right there asking questions and getting updates, even if she's on a different floor. As one would expect, the way the program works is pretty simple. When a newborn is admitted into the NICU, one iPad is placed next to the baby's incubator while another is delivered to the baby's mother. The press release notes that the mother can log onto BabyTime twice a day. Over the past few years, Cedars-Sinai has particularly embraced the intersection of technology and healthcare. The hospital previously gave its staff iPhones to facilitate communication amongst nurses and doctors and was also one of the first hospitals to roll out an iPhone app which enables doctors to remotely access EKG results and fetal monitoring.
