Pasco, Hillsborough & Pinellas, Florida – (March
2, 2020). The NICU team at Medical
Center of Trinity has launched its Itty Bitty Book Club championing a bedside
activity that will provide developmental benefits to our youngest and most
fragile patients while promoting parental involvement in care. Nothing is more
fundamental to the healthy growth and development of an infant than the bond
they share with their parents/caregivers.

Our staff is partnering with
parents and volunteers to initiate a NICU reading program designed to promote
bonding and foster a healthy habit and love of reading.  Reading to neonates helps advance brain
development and enhance vocabulary, listening, language, and memory skills. A
study published in 2018 noted that neonates who were read to displayed
increased cardio-pulmonary stability throughout their NICU stay and there has
been a strong correlation with early reading and prevention of developmental
delays. Cultivating this type of developmentally healthy environment will
benefit our patients and their families.

It is our goal that each
NICU graduate and their family receive the gift of reading and our first supply
of books have been graciously donated by the Medical Center of Trinity
Volunteers.

Attached photos:

1. Volunteers read to NICU babies.
2. Volunteers and staff pose with NICU infants and Dr.
   Seuss books.

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About Medical Center of
Trinity

Medical Center of Trinity is
a 340 bed, state-of-the-art, all-private room hospital (Main Campus)
strategically located in the tri-county area of Pasco, Pinellas, and
Hillsborough Counties. The facility is located at 9330 State Road 54, Trinity,
FL 34655, near the intersection of State Road (SR) 54 and Little Road. Medical
Center of Trinity clinical and acute-care programs include:

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