How moms at El Paso Children’s Hospital keep an eye on newborns 24/7

If you listen closely, you can hear the soft cries of newborn babies behind the walls of El Paso Children’s Hospital.

The newborn infants are cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.

“I really worked with babies forever because of all because I’ve always worked with women,” said Alicia Herrera.

Herrera is a lactation consultant for the hospital.

She and the staff are looking over the infants and working on progress beads. Every bead means a preemie is one step closer to being healthy.

And as the staff works, families hope and watch.

“I don’t think anybody who hasn’t gone through it understands it,” Herrera said.

Mom’s deal with many life challenges.

“I work here and I also teach at the college in Las Cruces so it’s hard to be going back and forth,” said Monique Melendrez.

Melendrez had her daughter Mya at 22 weeks and she loves the hospital’s NicView Webcam.

“I want to see how she is doing, how she is moving, how she is smiling,” Melendrez said.

The NicView Webcam hovers over the baby and parents are given a private web link so they can watch their preemies from their phones or personal computers 24 hours a day.

“It gives them a sense of control, a sense of comfort,” Herrera said.

The links can also be passed to parents deployed overseas or grandparents.

Nurses can monitor multiple newborns and even send messages to moms.

“The baby’s sleeping. She’s doing great go ahead and get some sleep,” Melendrez said as she read a old message.

It’s much needed sleep that both mom and baby can use.

In 2016 El Paso Children’s Hospital cared for 900 newborns and currently have 50 NicView Web cameras.