Emily Siwing Xia
Aug 30, 2025
Every year, countless of families in the United States pass through the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). In the NICU, they experience both hope and fear and find themselves facing a looming silent uncertainty. While most of these experiences focus on the newborns’ medical conditions, parents often endure their own emotional marathon of exhaustion, fear and pain. This is where social workers in the NICU come into play. They hold an underrecognized but crucial role in helping these families survive mentally and emotionally through this gruelling process. In this article, we had the honour of interviewing one of such NICU social workers from the Albany Medical Center in New York, Kasey Edwards, to talk about the role of mental health support in the NICU and how we can contribute through practical action and having open conversations.
The Mental Impacts on NICU Families
Watching your own baby rushed to the NICU is a tremendous amount of stress, on top of the already important and precarious process of giving birth. NICU parents are thrusted into an overwhelming state. It is laced with intense worry for their baby’s health, making difficult medical decisions based on medical jargon, and the sensory overstimulation of machine beeping and ventilators humming. Some NICU stays last from a few days to months and create an emotional load of restless waiting. These families are frequently constrained in a hospital room, and their senses are continuously overwhelmed by intermittent medical alarms and nurses moving in and out of the space.
“I just want him to see sunlight, feel the air, and touch his face outside.” Kasey recalls a mother’s teary wishes after months of her baby being admitted in the NICU. It paints a picture of an isolating experience, especially so during the COVID pandemic where familial visitor numbers were limited. Edwards emphasised how significant this can be for the parents’ mental health.
For some NICU families, they go through the unfortunate circumstance of grieving their baby’s loss, needing to navigate grief and heartbreak after long medical battles. Not only that, but parents can also feel the pressure to juggle other responsibilities, such as work, other children waiting at home, and even just travelling back and forth to the hospital. This piles onto their already strained mental and physical capacity, pushing them into a circumstance that almost seems impossible to overcome. As a result, the emotional experience of these parents is often a broad and intense spectrum, ranging from guilt, sadness, fear to helplessness. This emotional toll is often overshadowed by a medical focus on the physical state, yet is just as important as studies show being in the NICU can create trauma that have years-long impact.
The Work of NICU Social Workers
Kasey describes how a lot of times she and her team see parents at their most vulnerable and ‘lowest of low’ moments, and most memorably during the devastating losses. The NICU social worker team in Albany Medical Center becomes the first line of defence for parents under emotional distress. Through years of collective experience and teamwork, they talk with the parents through the initial moment and effectively triage the situation using each members’ different areas of expertise. The team prioritises in supporting the parents to be in a place where they are well and stable within themselves, to then be able to be there for their baby.
“Being in the NICU is like a marathon. You have to pace yourself. You can’t sprint to the finish line” Kasey brought up a popular saying among her team. She and her team attend to parents closely and encourage them to keep going on every day despite the difficult situation they are in, such as reminding them to take care of themselves or to go home and rest. Edwards points out that’s how they help parents pick themselves up by a simple gift card for a dinner downstairs, if they are unable to convince them to go home and rest.
Beyond the first critical moment, the role of NICU social workers extends from sitting and having supportive conversations with NICU families, to providing practical support for parents to access essential and ongoing resources. These professionals become a part of the support system. At times, they help parents stabilise their moods through therapy. Other times, they assist with practical aspects, such as linking up transport assistance, getting baby clothes, or making funeral arrangements on the parents’ behalf. However, the work doesn’t stop here. Kasey highlights the way her team advocates for a continuity of care for NICU families after being discharged. They link parents up with peer support groups within their communities and with other providers with social workers who can continue to provide transportation assistance and mental health support.
Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash
Next Generation NICU Social Workers
When asked about the future of NICU social work, Kasey has a positive and encouraging outlook. She mentions there is quite an influx of interest in new generation social workers to work in hospitals. In fact, quite recently, three of her interns have decided to continue to work in hospitals, after being previously unsure about the placement. Edwards muses that her beginning in the NICU was quite similar as well.
“I did not start off wanting to do pediatrics. My manager persuaded me to try working in the NICU on orientation. And I ended up loving it. I adore it. I have not left the NICU since. Now I don’t see myself going anywhere else.” Through this, Kasey attributes the success of social work to having a good mentor with good preceptors who can observe and identify one’s strengths and valuable skills. Social work is a career where there is an abundance of applied areas and opportunities to see where an individual can fit in and enjoy the work. She once again encourages people to come watch and learn from the team to understand the social work in NICUs. With the pressing nature of emotional support work in the NICU, the future of NICU social work depends on connecting and uplifting the next generation of social workers.
Raising Awareness
Despite the efforts of NICU social workers, NICU families often remain under the radar in terms of community discussions. This leads to a lack of public awareness regarding the struggle and journey they go through. Moreover, Kasey reveals a disheartening phenomenon where certain NICU families undermine their own experience because of certain aspects, for example parents dismissing that they are NICU parents because of their perceived comparatively short stay in the NICU. This shows how underdiscussed the NICU experience is where it could lead to self-invalidation and unrecognised need for care. In order to promote NICU awareness, Kasey urges there to be open conversations and active destigmatisation, where it is not seen to be as a taboo topic. This is especially doable with the accessibility of social media where online discussions and educational posts can be very helpful. She encourages NICU families to talk with each other and share their experiences, within these groups and outside in communities. By upholding open discussions, it can allow a space for NICU families to be supported by organisations and community players and interact with even non-NICU families to aid each other in their childrearing journey, settling them into a regular pace of life.
To Give a Helping Hand
Now, what actions can we as individuals and organisations can take to help these NICU families in their mental recovery? It turns out even little things can help! It is all about taking some of the mental and physical load off NICU families. Aside from being a part of the emotional support network, Kasey suggests financial assistance to help with e.g. travel costs, starting a meal train or booking cleaning services for NICU families that you know are great ways to show support. On top of that, donations to organisations with a focus in NICU can help sustain and facilitate programs that NICU families rely on.
Raising awareness is another way as well. By simply sharing NICU resources, content and posts is a small act that can mean a lot for NICU awareness by bringing these hidden issues into the light. Edwards reiterates that the journey for recovery doesn’t just end at the NICU but after being discharged. Parents may continue to face lasting challenges in childrearing and mental wellbeing after their experience in the NICU and remains a continuous progress. With a public recognition of NICU care extending beyond the hospital, we can establish communities that are better prepared and nurturing to these families.
Supporting NICU families is about breaking through the isolation they feel. Whether it’s through donations, meals or advocacy, they can help parents feel less alone and lessen the weight of stress on them.
We would love to thank Kasey Edwards for sharing her insights as a NICU social worker in the Albany Medical Center. It highlights the broad but crucial role of NICU social workers in supporting families from emotional support to practical solutions. Her experience emphasises the overlooked need for ongoing and holistic care for NICU families. Through raising awareness and taking action, we can all contribute to building a safe space for them in our communities.