Blog: World Prematurity Day

November 18th, 2013

Yesterday, November 17th, was World Prematurity Day.

1 in 10 children are born premature. This high-risk population are especially vulnerable to a variety of adverse outcomes. Dr. Marsha Campbell-Yeo, a neonatal nurse practitioner and faculty member of the Centre for Pediatric Pain Research, focuses her research on using non-pharmacological strategies and parent-driven interventions to improve the short and long term outcomes of premature and medically-fragile infants. Specifically, she looks at outcomes related to pain, stress, breastfeeding, and neurodevelopment. 

Dr. Campbell-Yeo is currently conducting several research studies within the NICU looking at maternal skin-to-skin care for procedural pain management, novel strategies to improve breastfeeding outcomes with preterm delivery, and exploring the effectiveness of small amounts of sweet taste for pain in the infant population.  Additionally, Dr. Campbell-Yeo is working on multiple knowledge translation projects to bridge the gap between published research on infants born preterm and best-evidence practice guidelines within the NICU.

Dr. Campbell-Yeo has recently completed a full review of published research on skin-to-skin care for procedural pain in neonates, which has been accepted for publication in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 

For more information on Dr. Campbell-Yeo’s research, please drop by the IWK Goldbloom Pavillion today, November 18th, for the World Prematurity Research poster display.  Also, check out her bio on the Centre for Pediatric Pain Research website:  http://pediatric-pain.ca/faculty/marsha-campbell-yeo/.