How we will support parents on SCBU Following best practice recommendations (1), the Library and Knowledge Service will work with the staff on SCBU to:
· Provide a range of books for parents to borrow, including stories, rhymes, poetry, and books representing the diversity of our community.
· Encourage parents to combine reading with skin-to-skin contact where possible, or with positive touch and hand-holding for infants in incubators.
· Reassure parents that any reading is beneficial — whether children’s stories, magazines, sports results, newspapers, or baby information — so that infants experience the sound of their parent’s voice.
Why reading matters for preterm babies Research shows that reading and vocal interaction with preterm infants brings multiple benefits:
· Physical wellbeing: Hearing a parent’s voice through reading, talking, or singing can improve babies’ physiological stability. Studies have shown significant increases in oxygen saturation levels, reduced critical events (such as hypoxemia, bradycardia, and apnoea), and more time spent in a calm alert state when infants are exposed to live maternal speech and singing.(2)
· Psychological benefits: Reading supports bonding by strengthening the emotional connection between parent and baby. This not only reassures parents but also enhances infant comfort and security, creating a nurturing environment within the neonatal unit. (3)
· Language development and literacy: Preterm infants are at higher risk of later communication and literacy difficulties. Early exposure to parental voices and reading provides a foundation for language acquisition, with vocabulary size at age two predicting reading ability up to age eleven. (4) Embedding language-rich experiences in SCBU can therefore play a key role in supporting long-term educational and social. (5)
1 McMahon, E. et al. (2020) ‘Supporting parents to read to their infants on a level 2 neonatal unit: launch of a neonatal library’, Infant, 16(6), pp. 258–261. Available at: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=1c46a0ef-d19b-3ed7-8a34-fd660037eb73 (Accessed: 22 August 2025).
2 Filippa, M. et al. (2013) ‘Live maternal speech and singing have beneficial effects on hospitalized preterm infants’, Acta Paediatrica, 102(10), pp. 1017–1020. https://doi:10.1111/apa.12356
3 Joaquim, P., Calado, G. and Costa, M. (2024). Benefits of reading to premature newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit: A scoping review. Journal of Neonatal Nursing, 30(4), pp.325–330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2023.11.011
4 Lee, J. (2011). Size matters: Early vocabulary as a predictor of language and literacy competence. Applied Psycholinguistics, 32(1), 69–92. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716410000299
5 Ionio, C. et al. (2016) ‘Paths of cognitive and language development in healthy preterm infants’, Infant Behavior and Development, 44, pp. 199–207. https://doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2016.07.004