The Alva Foundation funds research that aims to prevent significant risk factors in early childhood development, prenatal through four years of age. It is their philosophy that healthy childhood development sets in place many mental, physical, and social attributes that determine the ability to develop into a healthy adult.
In Canada, approximately 4000 infants per year are delivered preterm. In the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), critically ill infants repeatedly undergo essential yet invasive care-related procedures. For example, a recent Canadian survey showed that during a 1-week period, 580 neonates received over 17,500 painful/stressful procedures, many of which went untreated. Repeated exposure to, and poorly managed, procedural stress is a known risk factor for abnormal brain development having serious short- and long-term consequences for cognitive, physiological and behavioural outcomes of children born pre-term.
Dr. Liisa Holsti’s “Sweetheart Study”, which is being funded by the Alva Foundation, will test the effects of two innovative approaches for reducing pain and stress experienced by critically ill newborns in the NICU. The findings of this study could inform recommendations for care to ensure that these high‐risk infants development as healthily as possible.