For our 29th Podcast episode and to close out HIE Awareness month, I sat down with Brigid Janousek. She bravely shares the story of her son William's traumatic delivery and his subsequent treatment with therapeutic hypothermia due to his diagnosis of Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy or HIE. 

Infants with HIE have experienced a lack of oxygen to the brain either prior to birth, during the birth process, after birth, or during childhood. Infants with suspected HIE are treated in the NICU with therapeutic hypothermia or cooling that needs to be initiated within the first 6 hours of life. The cooling therapy reduces the rate of brain cell death and the risk of reperfusion injury which commonly occurs due to the release of toxins from the injured brain cells. The cooling process occurs for 72 hours post-delivery and has been shown to minimize the extent of death and disability in children. 

Brigid shares a more in depth look into William’s time in the NICU, and how they first learned about his diagnosis. She explains why they felt like they were outcasts in the NICU due to William being a term infant. Brigid shares the struggles they endured once they were discharged home and how she unknowingly was suffering from postpartum depression, perinatal mood disorder, and PTSD. We discuss ways it was helpful for her to work through her trauma and why she is so passionate about bringing awareness to the misconception that all NICU babies are preterm as well as the importance of focusing on maternal mental health. 

We thank Brigid for sharing her family’s very personal story. It is our goal to help bring awareness to HIE and to help break down some of the barriers and social disparities that exist with HIE infants and full-term NICU babies and strive for inclusive NICU messaging.

Stay tuned, you will not want to miss their story…

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