Jerrica Walden helps special needs babies thrive in the NICU

Jerrica Walden, the supervisor of Rehabilitation-Speech Pathology at HCA Florida North Florida Hospital, knows all about the importance of family. While she does not work with her own family members, she spends her days helping families during one of the most stressful events they can experience – the birth of a baby with special needs. 

Since babies can’t speak many people may wonder how the NICU would benefit from speech pathologists, but their role is very important. Speech pathologists also work with babies who are born too early in gestation to know how to eat and breathe at the same time.

“A lot of the babies I work with are born before their feeding and swallowing systems are mature,” Walden explained. “We’re asking these babies to do things their bodies don’t know how to do. It’s not a functioning system until 38 weeks of gestation, and a baby has to achieve 34 weeks of gestation before they can even begin to learn. Before then, they’re swallowing amniotic fluid, but aren’t breathing. I have to teach them how to breathe while they are eating and assess each baby’s feeding and swallowing to make sure they aren’t aspirating into their lungs.”

Another important part of Walden’s job is teaching parents how to feed their babies. “One of the most basic things about taking care of your baby is feeding them,” she said. “But for babies born too early, or with a cleft lip, tongue tie or cleft palate, feeding them isn’t simple. I want to make sure that the parents are competently and confidently feeding their babies and that the babies are feeding safely.”

In fact, teaching parents how to feed these special babies became such a central goal of Walden’s that she recently became a certified lactation consultant. “I feel like, more than anything, I’m an educator,” she explained. “I work with families to find out what their feeding goals are. What do they want, and how can I support that goal? I can have ideas on how things should progress, but I have to make sure that I’m helping the families with what they want.”

“At the same time,” Walden continued, “I have to give them the space they need to process what has happened. A lot of these moms give birth before their baby showers and have a higher incidence of post-partum depression. Many of the fathers have post-traumatic stress disorder. I’m not looking at just the baby, I’m looking at the whole family. We have to allow people the space to grieve and adapt. We come to know these families at their most vulnerable time.”

Walden has been at HCA Florida North Florida Hospital for 17 years and has never worked anywhere else. She always knew she wanted to be a therapist and settled on speech pathology because, she joked, “There’s no math in it!” 

She cited her appreciation for the team she works with as one of the reasons why she continues to pursue such a challenging career. “I can’t function without my team,” she explained. “There are a lot of unsung heroes in every story, and this speaks to how cohesive the ICU team is. We have the opportunity to make the most wonderful impact on our patients, which is a great gift for us.”