RDP student's research helps expand mother-baby care in 8 Alberta hospitals
A Red Deer Polytechnic student's contributions to a provincial newborn care program have coincided with higher breastfeeding rates and fewer NICU admissions.
Why it matters
The approach has shown fewer NICU admissions and healthcare cost savings, with plans to expand it provincewide.
Red Deer Polytechnic student Haley Zinger has spent since April 2025 contributing to the Alberta Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Mother-Baby Care Improvement (NASCENT) initiative, a provincial effort to improve care for newborns and mothers who are or have been involved with substance use. Her work has touched eight hospitals across Alberta.
NASCENT promotes keeping mothers and infants together after birth, known as enhanced rooming-in, rather than separating them for admission to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Zinger's roles have included data entry, supporting education days for care providers, and contributing to projects that use a listening-first approach with people who have lived experience of substance use in pregnancy.
Working with Recovery Alberta and Acute Care Alberta, the team compared data collected before and after enhanced rooming-in was introduced. Zinger said the comparison showed a rise in breastfeeding rates and a decrease in NICU admissions, which also reduces costs for the healthcare system.
Zinger's work has been supported through an Alberta Innovates Summer Research Studentship and funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The NASCENT team is now focused on scaling enhanced rooming-in more broadly across Alberta and preparing publications to share lessons learned.
Compiled by the Alberta Daily Desk — an AI-written summary of reporting from the credited sources below, produced and reviewed under our editorial policy.