- However, we do have some restrictions for the wider family due to environmental constraints.

- Access to the unit MUST be with a parent

- We ask for a maximum of 2 adults at the cot side, one of whom must be a parent. 

- The total number of visitors at the cot side may increase to 3 if 1 or 2 are a child. All children must be accompanied by an adult. 

-  As of 14/9/23, unlimited visitors are welcome to visit between 10.00hrs-2200hrs. 

- Siblings of babies are now welcome to visit 10-10pm daily 

- Unfortunately, no other children are able to visit.

For solo parents, we are always happy to support one nominated visitor for you, as we understand you can't always do it all alone. Your nominated person will also be able to enjoy unlimited visiting hours for the whole duration of your baby's stay. Please let the reception team and nurse looking after your baby know the details for your nominated visitor.

Please be aware of and considerate of other families - at times we may ask visitors to step out briefly if the nurseries become too crowded. 

Please also ask your visitors to be mindful of not attending when unwell, to minimise infection risk to all babies. 

Neonatal Reception

01932 722667

Room 1

01932 726823

Room 2

01932 723895/6

Room 3

Room 4

01932 723420

Room 5

01932 723897

Transitional Care Unit

01932 723238 

If you cannot attend and would like to video call instead, please ask and we will try to facilitate this. 

Ward Round happens between 9.45-11.30am for all rooms.

All families have information about Parent Led Ward Round and helpful ideas (also attached above) to follow if you would like a guide - these are all in your cot side folder.

There is a proforma for Days 2-5 of life, and one for Day 6 onwards to support you.

• From 5/8/24, parking is now FREE for every family!

• Please ask at Reception for the link to access your free parking and further details!

Available to offer support and is based on NICU Monday to Thursday.  fionaengland@nhs.net

Louise O' Dwyer  Child psychotherapist - available to offer support on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Vikki German - Family Support Worker from the Shooting Star Team.

Surrey - Dad Matters | Home-Start Surrey

NCOT is a team of both nurses and nursery nurses who support parents and their baby through the process of preparing for discharge from NICU and to also support parents at home following discharge.

As your baby begins to be preparing for discharge, one of the team will come to visit you and your baby at their cot-side.

After discharge, NCOT will usually visit once a week, but more if required. They aim to see your baby for the first few weeks after discharge from NICU. If a baby requires longer term community care for oxygen or feeding their care will be transferred over to the Children’s Community Nurses (CCN’s) who will continue to look after your baby’s needs.

Meet other NICU families out in the community post NICU discharge...

Little Treasures Group

The group is for babies & parents, and is a chance to meet with other parents & carers who have experienced time in NICU or on TCU with their premature or sick babies.

We provide peer support & a small range of age appropriate toys.

An NCOT team member will be there at each session & we can also weigh babies at this group, so parents please remember to bring your red books with you!

- Main Reception - WH Smiths shop,  Open 7-7pm Mon-Fri, 10-4pm Sat & Sun

- Main Reception - The Retreat Cafe with Coffee/Food & Drink area serving hot food. Open 7.30-4pm Mon-Fri. 

- Out of hours in Abbey Wing there is a Vending machine available for snacks. 

- Parents are also able to get snacks from NICU Reception & in the parent accommodation which are kindly donated by our charity, Little Roo. 

- Families are also able to store food in the Parent Accommodation fridge. 

- For Resident Families, food is now available for both parents - please ask at NICU Reception for further details.

We ask you to please also respect other baby/babies' and families' privacy, especially during private conversations at the bedside. 

The type of antibiotic given may change depending on your baby/babies' age, as the types of bacteria that affect babies change with their age and time in NICU. 

Please ask the team for more information if you would like it or are unsure.

The most effective route for this is into the muscle - this is usually given in the thigh area as a one off dose shortly after birth.  It can be given orally, but will need multiple doses to achieve the same effect and has not been proven to be as effective as when given in the muscle. 

When babies are admitted to NICU, we will administer Vitamin K shortly after their arrival to NICU, unless you have a strong objection.

Please ask the team for further information if you have any questions. The attached leaflet contains more information on Vitamin K.

The rooms are allocated on a night by night basis - they are usually prioritised for those who have furthest to travel or families of babies who are very unwell. 

Please do ask if you would like to stay and we will always try to accommodate your wishes where possible. 

Do please look in the Other Information segment for local Hotels/Hostels if you have family that wish to stay close by.

Don't forget to look at the NICU specific segment on it for support with expressing for your sick or preterm baby.

If you would like to refer yourself for further support to the Infant Feeding team, this link will take you to the padlet and you can contact them via this.

Feeding and Nurturing. Ashford and St Peter's Hospital Trust

Leanne Jeffery, Infant Feeding Specialist

Email: asp-tr.infant-feeding@nhs.net

You are welcome to Self-refer if preferred or please ask a member of the NICU team to do so for you. 

If you are interested in joining our Parent Advisory Group, please contact Fiona at fionaengland@nhs.net

If your baby is preterm and remains on the unit until they are old enough to need vaccinations, these will be administered, with your consent, on NICU. 

Vaccinations are extremely important for Preterm or unwell babies, who are more vulnerable to common infections than those not experiencing this.

Vaccinations are important for all babies but even more so for those who are preterm or unwell, who are more vulnerable to common infections. Preterm babies should also receive their vaccines at the right age (8 weeks of age) like term babies, without correcting for prematurity to protect them from infections.  

If your baby is preterm and remains on the unit until they are old enough to need their first vaccines, with your written consent these will be administered. 

In St Peter’s hospital, we undertook a recent review of records over the last 4 years to study how preterm babies coped with their first vaccinations. This showed that most babies including extremely preterm babies and very low birth weight babies tolerated this very well, with only a few of them needing a small increase in their oxygen support for a couple of days post vaccinations. 

Please do ask the team if you have any questions so that we can try to give your baby their vaccinations on time and keep them safe! 

Please see this leaflet for further details, and ask if you have any further questions.

Communication leaflets for preterm babies, information of reading to your baby and play ideas for different ages.

These are available in the Foyer by Reception in NICU - please help yourself!

St Peter's NICU is a Level 3 Neonatal Unit offering medical care to babies who need it from within Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

Our Neonatal Unit is located on the 3rd floor of Abbey Wing. Parking is available outside - see below for further details. 

Then click - St Peter's to have a virtual tour of our unit!

• You have not expressed any colostrum by day 3 after birth

• Your milk is not increasing in volume by day 5 after birth, or stops increasing before day 14 after birth

• Your 24-hour milk volumes are less than 400ml by day 7 or less than 500ml by day 14 after birth

• Your 24-hour milk volumes drop at all once expressing is established

• You have any breast / 🤬 pain, redness or trauma

Partners welcome***

Mondays: 10:30-12:30 Revive coffee shop, CHERTSEY, 99 Guildford Street KT16 9AS

Mondays: 13:00-14:00 Clarendon Family Centre (Breastfeeding Cafe), ASHFORD, 1 Knapp Road TW15 2HZ

Wednesdays: 09:30-11:30 Eastwood Leisure Centre, WOKING, Albert Drive GU21 5RF

Thursdays: 10:30-12:30 Hall 2, Shah Jahan Mosque, WOKING, 149 Oriental Rd GU22 7BA. *** Male partners asked to wait outside to respect cultural practices within the community.

Fridays: 12:30-15:00 St Johns Church, EGHAM, Manor Farm Lane TW20 9HE 

The Transitional Care Unit is located in bay 5 on the postnatal maternity ward.  We admit babies from the labour ward, NICU and home (while mum is still under midwifery care) according to their circumstances. 

Babies on NICU will often be transferred down to TC to be with their parents prior to discharge - if mum has already been discharged then we will ask you to come back in to be with your baby in TC as your baby cannot be in TC without mummy. 

Partners are now welcome in TC to stay alongside their baby and partner - we have a lay flat chair in each bed space.

Both parents are welcome to use the parents' accommodation on NICU for refreshment, and are able to order hot meals - please see the poster below for more information.

In order for babies to be ready for TC they will need to be over 33 weeks gestation, on no monitoring and at least 3 hourly feeding (or response feeding). Their needs and age etc will determine how long your baby will be in TC, and it can range from a couple of days to a couple of weeks depending on this. However, we know that being with their parents does support babies to learn to feed quicker.

The Neonatal doctors carry out a ward round on the Transitional Care unit every morning.  If your baby is ready to go home, but mum is still not quite ready, then we may transfer your baby's care back to the midwives to await your discharge home together. The Neonatal doctors are in TC during the day to support and assess your baby as needed, and if your baby needed a doctor at any other time then it would be the NICU doctors that would look after your baby’s needs.

Please note, babies from 33 weeks are now eligible for TCU, see below for more details.

The KSS network have undertaken virtual tours of every unit in our region, for parents to look at, so that even if you haven't been able to visit in person, you can look at the unit before you get there.

Link:

Unit Information - Neonatal Network South East (neonatalnetworkssoutheast.nhs.uk)

Infection prevention is essential for all staff, families and visitors in NICU.

To help us protect your baby  we ask that all parents and visitors follow the guidance in this link. 

The FREE Canopie App offers Mental Health Support for NICU parents undergoing a NICU stay:

• 24/7 practical support for your challenges

• Made by experts & loved by parents

• Listen, read, & watch short videos

• Virtual classes & community support

• A journal to process thoughts

• For mum, dad, or caregiver

This technique should be used when decontaminating your hands with either alcohol gel or soap and water.

Hot food is available for all families resident in NICU.

All families are welcome to free cold meal when they would like them.

The above leaflet explains what BMF is.

Please ask your Neonatal Nurse or a member of the Infant Feeding Team for support with expressing.

We are here to help you.

A map of our region can be viewed on this website and is also displayed on our Transport board.

There are also links to the 3D tours of all neonatal units within the South East Neonatal network. For specialist surgical and cardiac centres outside our Network, we have posted links to their Neonatal unit website pages below.

It may be helpful to acknowledge that they may have mixed feelings about coming to the hospital and reassure them that this is very usual. If a child is clear that they do not want to visit, or finds it very distressing it may be better to wait until they are ready. In our experience this does not often tend to be the case. Most older children will not necessarily know what to expect a newborn baby to look like, and so sometimes they ask less questions than parents fear.

Younger children tend to only be able to manage shorter visits and so may need a few favourite activities with them to do when they are not in the nursery. There are some toys in the lounge that they are free to use, and you should be given a sibling pack by a member of staff, with a book and some activities including colouring.

There is also an app that has been developed for siblings of babies in NICU called NELL – that some families may find helpful to use.

Older children are also likely to be missing you, especially if you are still an inpatient, and so you are also welcome to spend some time with your child in the lounge area.

Your child may find it difficult if they have in a mind a date that you will be home, and it is later changed so it is important to be as honest as possible – even if you do not have an answer to some of the questions that your child is asking. Children can find it reassuring to hear that the doctors and the nurses and the rest of the team are looking after your baby, and they are talking to you about your baby and that you are all making a plan together for your baby.

Children may worry that you are also ill if you are in hospital, so it can be helpful to clarify this for them. Children may also worry that you like your new baby more than them, and that is why

you are staying in hospital with your new baby. It can be helpful to acknowledge that worry and explain the reasons that you may need to remain in hospital.

We have a family support worker, and a child psychotherapist who spend some time in the unit. We also have a link with a play specialist in the hospital, so please let a member of staff know and one of the team can speak to you about your worries. We may be able to arrange some craft activities with the family support worker, or a session with the psychotherapist.

It is usually helpful to let your child’s school/nursery know that your new baby is in the NICU so that teaching staff who are familiar to your child are able to support your child at school. Sometimes children find it easier to talk to someone outside of the family about any worries, as they may fear upsetting a parent or family member.

Allowing your child to express the range of feelings that they may have about your new baby is helpful, as this helps them to feel understood and to process what is happening.  Younger children sometimes like to do this through play or drawings. At times you may find it upsetting to hear what they are saying as children can ask questions much more directly. If this is happening it is important that you also get some support yourself.

We welcome siblings of the baby/ies on NICU between 10am-10pm every day.

All siblings need to be supervised by a parent at all times. When a sibling visits, a maximum of 3 people can stay at the cot side, depending on how busy the Nursery is at that time.

It is important that there is some preparation for what the environment will look like.

Take time to describe what the NICU looks like, talk about photos, and discuss the sensory environment. Describe what they will be able to do during the visit; the need to wash hands, how they may read a book, help with cares or hold their sibling.

This leaflet signposts you to support available.