These long, soft tubes are put into the blood vessels in your babyвЂ™s belly button. Doctors might use a nasogastric (pronounced nase-oh-gas-trick) or orogastric (pronounced or-oh-gas-trick) tube. If your baby can't feed by themselves yet, they might be able to have breast milk or formula through a tube that goes down their mouth or nose and into their stomach. These tubes are there to give fluids or medication, like antibiotics. Sometimes the staff might have to use one of the tiny veins on the surface of your babyвЂ™s head.

The IV is usually put in a hand, foot, arm or leg. Your baby might have thin tubes (sometimes called IVs, drips or cannulae) put into a tiny blood vessel. Intravenous (pronounced in-tra-vee-nus, and sometimes shortened to IV) drip

The sensors are strapped gently to your babyвЂ™s foot or hand. These monitors check the amount of oxygen in your baby's blood, by shining a light through their skin. Wires run from the pads to the monitoring machine. These monitors pick up these signals through small pads put on your babyвЂ™s chest. They can also pick up changes in your baby's breathing. These machines pick up electrical signals given out from your babyвЂ™s heart, and always check that it is beating properly. It is the tube which passes the air into your baby's lungs from the ventilator. It is either put in through your baby's nose or mouth. This is put down your baby's windpipe (called a trachea by health professionals) if they are on a ventilator. Endotracheal (pronounced en-doe-track-eel) tube CPAP slightly raises the pressure of the air, which helps keep your babyвЂ™s lungs inflated. Heated, humidified high-flow nasal cannula is where warm, moist air with or without oxygen (depending on what your baby needs) flows into your babyвЂ™s lungs through small tubes in their nose.Д¬ontinuous positive airway pressure (often shortened to CPAP) is similar to high-flow, and passes air with or without oxygen (depending on what your baby needs) through two thin tubes in your babyвЂ™s nose, or through a small mask over their nose. Some babies need help with their breathing but do not need something as strong as a ventilator. Heated, humidified high-flow nasal cannula (also called HHHFNC, high-flow or optiflow) This might look worrying, but it can work very well for some kinds of lung conditions. Your babyвЂ™s chest will look like it is vibrating. High frequency oscillating ventilators blow small amounts of air with or without added oxygen (depending on what your baby needs) into the lungs very quickly, hundreds of times a minute. How quickly the lungs are inflated is kept regular, and adjusted depending on what your baby needs. Positive pressure ventilators blow air with or without added oxygen (depending on what your baby needs) gently into your babyвЂ™s lungs through a tube which is passed through their nose or mouth. Premature babies' lungs in particular might not be developed enough to manage breathing by themselves yet.Дepending on what your baby needs, they might be put on a machine called a ventilator вЂ“ this helps your baby to breathe. If a baby is born prematurely or with a medical condition, they may struggle to breathe by themselves. Once they are born, babies get their oxygen by breathing. The oxygen in the mum's blood passes across the placenta and into the umbilical cord (the cord that connects the baby to the placenta and which is cut at birth). Ventilators and breathing machinesД«efore your baby was born, they received all the oxygen they needed from mum. If the sensor falls off or is not working properly, an alarm sounds, and a nurse will check the temperature of the incubator. The temperature is controlled in two ways вЂ“ either with controls or using an automatic sensor on your baby's skin.

Other incubators have open tops and an overhead heater or heated mattresses. This helps keep the heat and humidity in the incubator, stopping too much moisture evaporating from your babyвЂ™s fine skin. Some incubators are closed boxes with hand holes on the side. Premature or sick babies can struggle to stay warm on their own. Incubators are clear boxes which help keep your baby warm.

Baby incubator