About us
The Developmental Care, Early Intervention and Follow up Program (DCEIP) is an integral part of the division of neonatology. The program aims at providing infants individualized developmental care during their stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and after discharge.
In the NICU, a trained team supports the developmental care approach following the Neonatal Individualized Developmental Care model (NIDCAP) to NICU infants, health care providers and families. The team conducts regular rounds to observe infants' behaviors, strengths and challenges. Based on those observations, the team sets goals and recommendations to benefit infants' development for NICU staff and parents.
Infants graduating from the NICU are at risk of growth restriction, developmental delay and other co-morbidities. They are offered to be followed in a dedicated unit, the Neonatology Continuity Clinic (Check the NCC Brochure). NCC serves as a multidisciplinary hub for the follow up of preterm and term infants at risk for long term morbidities. The follow up includes assessment of infants' physical wellbeing: growth, nutrition, vision, neurodevelopment, cognitive and behavior. At the end of each assessment, guidance for early intervention is offered to help infants reach their growth and developmental potentials.
Who we are?
The DCEIP team consists of a neonatologist, two nurses, and a program coordinator. The team works in parallel with other disciplines in the NICU toward having developmentally supportive care using the NIDCAP framework.
NIDCAP consists of a comprehensive approach that supports individual infant's stability and promotes developmental goals.
After discharge, families will be seen in the NCC by a neonatologist and a developmental specialist in addition to a nutritionist, a social worker and other specialists as needed.
The purpose is to have a holistic comprehensive approach for assessing the child's physical, nutritional and developmental wellbeing as early as of two months corrected age and til the age of at least three years.
Our mission
- To provide individualized developmental care based on NIDCAP principles for all infants admitted to the NICU.
- To educate healthcare professionals, related disciplines and parents about developmental care.
- To provide a continuum of care with comprehensive and multidisciplinary service to patients “graduating" from the NICU.
- To ensure early detection and initiate intervention for any developmental delay.
- To support and educate parents on the risk of developmental delay and empower them to achieve healthy outcomes for their infants.
Our vision
- To position AUBMC as the referral Center for follow up of the small and sick newborns.
- To establish the first NIDCAP certified unit in the country.
- To establish a Neonatal Developmental Care training center at AUBMC.
Our Activities
The DCEIP team is involved in various activities in the NICU, the Neonatology Continuity Clinic and in the community. These include:
- Medical and nursing staff education about developmental care practices and breastfeeding
- Weekly developmental care round in NICU
- Monthly parent education session and celebration of special events such as the world breastfeeding week, Kangaroo care awareness day, world NIDCAP day, world prematurity day and Read a Thon activity organized by The little Readers foundation- Australia
- Follow up of sick and small newborn in the Neonatal Continuity Clinic and parents'education and provision of supportive materials such as the “Toy and Play" for early stimulation and responsive caregiving (Resources - Ei SMART)
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Yearly participation in the NIDCAP Day Poster
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Quality Improvement Projects:
- Prenatal Counseling of future Parents to increase immediate Skin-to-Skin Contact and Breast Feeding at birth - A Quality Improvement Initiative
- Adopting Routine Skin-to-Skin Contact in the Delivery Suite at AUBMC for Improving Breastfeeding Rates: A Quality Improvement Initiative
- Adopting a uniform approach to counseling parents regarding newborn care and breastfeeding: a quality improvement initiative.
- Implementation of Kangaroo care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: a quality improvement project
- Addressing infant positioning in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: a quality improvement initiative
Research activities:
Publications:
- Rima Kaddoura PhD, Reine Zankar MD, Hani Tamim PhD, Martine El Bejjani PhD, Ziyad R. Mahfoud PhD, Pascale Salameh, Lama Charafeddine MD. Stress and quality of life post preterm birth during polycrises: prospective cohort study. AJOG Global Reports 2025/8/5
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666577825001182
- Youness N, Masri S, Abdel Nour G, Charafeddine L. Education Sessions Improve Knowledge and Attitudes of Parents in a Newborn Intensive Care Unit within a Low-Income Country. Developmental Observer (2025) Volume 18 Issue 1. DOI:10.14434/do.v18i1.40888
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/do/article/download/40888/43137
- Kaddoura, R., Elbejjani, M., Tamim, H. et al. Building a maternal and child cohort amidst Lebanon's socioeconomic collapse: preliminary results and navigating research challenges. Popul Health Metrics 22, 5 (2024).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-024-00325-1https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12963-024-00325-1
- Saadieh Masri & Lama Charafeddine.
Practice of Developmental Care During Multilayered Crisis Situation: Lessons Learned from Lebanon. Developmental Observer (2023) Volume 18 Issue 1.
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/do/article/download/35770/38925
- Charafeddine, Lama; Obeid, Makram; Sharafeddin, Hussein (2023). OSRA Grant Cycle 5 Public Reports: Project Title: Comprehensive Parenting Program to Enhance Preterm Infants' Health and Development A Randomized Controlled Trial. Manara - Qatar Research Repository. Report.
https://doi.org/10.57945/manara.24598992.v1
- Sharafeddin, H., Charafeddine, L., Khalaf, J., Kanj, I. and Zaraket, F. Neonatal Video Database and Annotations for Vital Sign Extraction and Monitoring. DOI: 10.5220/0011637800003411 In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications and Methods (ICPRAM 2023), pages 767-774 ISBN: 978-989-758-626-2; ISSN: 2184-4313.
https://www.scitepress.org/Papers/2023/116378/116378.pdf
- Badr, L. K., Charafeddine, L., & Sidani, S. (2022). Middle East (Lebanon). In Neonatal Nursing: A Global Perspective (pp. 111-117). Springer, Cham.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360127876_Middle_East_Lebanon
- Abi Farraj F, Masri S, Maalouf FI, Charafeddine L. Providing more effective kangaroo care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A quality improvement project in a Lebanese neonatal intensive care unit. IJQHC Communications. 2023 Jan 1;3(1):lyad002.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ijcoms/lyad002
- Masri S, Charafeddine L, Tamim H, Naamani M, Jammal T, Akoury-Dirani L. Validation of the Arabic version of the parental stressor scale: neonatal intensive care unit (PSS: NICU). Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings. 2020 Sep;27(3):593-602.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-019-09643-1
- Charafeddine L, Masri S, Sharafeddin SF, Badr LK. Implementing NIDCAP training in a low-middle-income country: comparing nurses and physicians' attitudes. Early human development. 2020 Aug 1;147:105092.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2020.105092
- Charafeddine L, Masri S, Ibrahim P, Badin D, Cheayto S, Tamim H. Targeted educational program improves infant positioning practice in the NICU. International Journal for Quality in Health Care. 2018 Oct 1;30(8):642-8.
doi: 10.1093/intqhc/mzy123.
- Masri S, Ibrahim P, Badin D, Khalil S, Charafeddine L. Structured Educational Intervention Leads to Better Infant Positioning in the NICU. Neonatal Network. 2018 Mar 1;37(2).
https://doi.org/10.1891/0730-0832.37.2.70
- Louma Basma Rustam, Saadieh Masri, Nathalie Atallah, Hani Tamim, Lama Charafeddine. Sensorimotor therapy and time to full oral feeding in <33weeks infants, Early Human Development, Volume 99, 2016, Pages 1-5, ISSN 0378-3782,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2016.04.007.Sensorimotor therapy and time to full oral feeding in 33 weeks infants
Active research study: Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) 2.0 - Development of population norms for early childhood development under 36 months
Community Outreach:
