Cameras provide 24/7 view of babies in NICU

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Having a baby in the NICU can be a stressful experience for families, but New Hanover Regional Medical Center is finding a way to ease that stress with a new type of way to connect.

They are using 24/7 live streaming cameras so families do not have to miss out with their little ones. Nurses said family members from around the country have been tuning in with the NicView system since late spring. Money was raised through the hospital’s foundation to provide 49 cameras , that way every baby in the NICU can have one.

NICU manager Brandy Garris said it’s a way to make an already tough process a little easier.

Dad JP Altman said  it’s been a great way for him, and big brothers, to keep up with baby Elias who has been in the NICU for four weeks after weighing three-and-a-half pounds at birth.

“We have a lot of families that live outside of New Hanover County, so balancing the life in the NICU with a baby here, then children at home and work and life, you can’t always be here as much as you like,” Garris said.

“The grandparents, the uncles, so that’s Asheville, Cincinnati, my brother’s down in Calabash, so all of them have been tuning in and watching here and there,” Altman said.