Empowering Parents With Knowledge and Content: An Interview With Katie Ross
With a passion for supporting premature and medically fragile children and their families, the pandemic sparked an idea for Katie Ross to grow a business with a mission to support infant mental health through parent education and empowerment. Her company, Blooming Littles, began as a blog guiding parents through their NICU journey that grew quickly into a thriving social online community. Educating and empowering parents to interact with and respond to their NICU infants in developmentally appropriate and sensitive ways sets the foundation for their mental health and can prevent depression, anxiety, and suicide risk when they are teens. In this podcast, Katie speaks about giving parents the tools to maximize visits with their premature infants by educating them about what to expect, what the infant’s behavior might look like, which medical equipment they might see, and how they could attune, touch, and nurture their infant’s mental health. Ultimately, ”decreasing parental fear with knowledge is the goal,” she says.
Resources
- Browne, J. V. (2021). Infant mental health in intensive care: Laying a foundation for social, emotional and mental health outcomes through regulation, relationships and reflection. Journal of Neonatal Nursing, 27(1), 33–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2020.11.011
- Blooming Littles. (2022). Welcome to the blog. https://bloominglittles.com/blog/
- Choi, K. R., Records, K., Low, L. K., Alhusen, J. L., Kenner, C., Bloch, J. R., Premji, S. S., Hannan, J., Anderson, C. M., Yeo, S., & Logsdon, M. C. (2020). Promotion of maternal-infant mental health and trauma informed care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecology, & Neonatal Nursing, 49(5), 409–415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jogn.2020.07.004
- Hand to Hold. (n.d.). For our families. https://handtohold.org/nicu-family-support/
- Penelope Project. (n.d.). Parent your preemie with confidence. https://www.penelopeproject.org/education
About the Interviewee
Katie Ross, OTD, OTR/L, NTMTC, CNT, is a certified neonatal therapist with clinical experience working in a 100+ bed, level IV NICU. She holds additional certifications in neonatal touch and massage as well as lactation. Katie is also the owner and founder of Blooming Littles, an online resource aimed at equipping NICU families with the education they need to take more confident steps at the NICU bedside.
Contact: katie@BloomingLittles.com
Suggested Citation
Ruffner, A. (2022, September 1). Empowering parents with knowledge and content: An interview with Katie Ross [Audio podcast]. imagine. www.imagine.musictherapy.biz
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