This module provides a foundational understanding of the nervous system and its role in shaping behaviour, physiology, and perception under stress. Clinicians explore how different nervous system branches contribute to survival, regulation, digestion, sensory processing, and relational engagement. Particular emphasis is placed on how these systems operate in high-acuity environments such as the NICU, forming the physiological backdrop to staff performance, parental behaviour, and infant responses.

This module explores key brain regions involved in decision-making, emotional processing, memory formation, and threat detection. Clinicians gain insight into how stress and trauma alter neural processing, contributing to cognitive overload, negativity bias, and memory encoding challenges commonly observed in NICU parents. Understanding these mechanisms supports more compassionate communication, improved consent processes, and realistic expectations of parental capacity under stress.

This module examines the profound neural and physiological transformations that occur in parents during pregnancy and the perinatal period. Structural brain changes are mapped to gestational milestones, with specific attention to preterm birth, caesarean delivery, and birth trauma. Clinicians explore the role of oxytocin, disrupted sensory feedback, and how parental brains adapt to infants mediated by machines and alarms. Patrescence and endocrine changes in fathers are addressed, alongside neuroplasticity, motivation, empathy networks, and mirror neuron systems.

Guest Faculty:  Dr Greer Kirshenbaum

In this module, Dr Greer Kirshenbaum from Nuture Neuroscience explores how low-nurture and high-stress environments shape developing infant and parental brains. Clinicians gain insight into the vulnerabilities of immature stress systems, the protective role of nurturing care, and how NICU practices can influence long-term mental health outcomes for both babies and parents.

This core module introduces Polyvagal Theory as the organising framework underpinning the course. Clinicians explore autonomic nervous system states, blended states (including appeasement and fawn), and how these present in both staff and parents. Concepts of homeostasis, allostatic load, prediction processing, and dissociation through medicalisation are examined. The module includes both the standard Polyvagal Ladder and an NICU-specific adaptation created by Lottie, alongside HRV and RSA as clinical indicators of autonomic regulation.

This module explores the social engagement system and its critical role in safety, communication, and co-regulation within the NICU. Clinicians examine the cranial nerves and their functional roles, drawing on the work of Stanley Rosenberg. The face-heart connection, somatomotor pathways, and the impact of community on regulation and dysregulation are discussed, supporting staff awareness of how their own nervous systems influence patient and family interactions.

Join Jessica Maguire from The Nervous System School, as she provides a comprehensive anatomical and functional exploration of the vagus nerve, supporting clinicians to understand its central role in autonomic regulation, stress recovery, and social engagement. The session explores the afferent–efferent (80/20) pathways of the vagus nerve, introducing concepts of vagal tone and the vagal brake to explain how physiological state shapes behaviour, perception, and responsiveness in both staff and families.

Clinicians are guided through Dan Siegel’s Window of Regulation, alongside the concept of an artificial window of regulation often imposed within medical environments. The module examines how nervous system states influence internal narratives, meaning-making, and communication, offering critical insight into why individuals think, feel, and respond differently under stress. Practical connections are made to the NICU context, supporting teams to recognise vagal patterns in themselves and others and to foster conditions that promote safety, regulation, and relational care.

This module explores neuroception — the nervous system’s subconscious detection of safety and threat — and its relevance for staff, parents, and infants. Clinicians learn how safety thresholds are shaped, lost, and restored in medical environments. An adapted version of BG Mancini’s Boiler Model is introduced, alongside practical examples of cues of safety, connection needs, and the impact of chronic threat exposure within the NICU.

This module focuses on interoception as the companion process to neuroception, exploring how internal bodily signals influence emotion, behaviour, and meaning-making. The implications of medical gaslighting and invalidation are explored, and the role of predictive processing. Clinicians will also examine interoception through a neurodiversity-affirming lens. The module supports more attuned, equitable care by addressing how one of our core sensory systems works.

This module examines the bidirectional relationship between the gut and brain, with a focus on the microbiome, neuroinflammation, leaky gut, and the blood–brain barrier. Clinicians explore how microtraumas, stress physiology, the HPA axis, and vagal pathways interact to influence both mental and physical health. The relevance of these processes to neonatal care, parental stress, and long-term outcomes is emphasised.

Guest Faculty: Frankie Harrison

This module explores the development of PTSD following neonatal admission. Clinicians examine risk factors, symptom presentation, and the complexities of trauma within medical contexts, supporting earlier recognition and more trauma-informed responses.

This module provides an in-depth exploration of the HPA axis and the long-term psychological and physiological consequences of unresolved stress and trauma held in the body. Clinicians examine how chronic activation manifests across the body and lifespan, linking early experiences to later health outcomes.

This module addresses the many forms of loss experienced in neonatal care, from palliative care to sudden loss and surviving multiples. Clinicians explore high-stakes decision-making, withdrawal of care conversations, and the neurobiology of grief. Models such as Dr Paul Clarke’s Delivery Room Cuddle are discussed to support compassionate, trauma-aware care during end-of-life and palliative contexts.