Babies on Butterfly frequently require additional oxygen (‘normal’ air contains 21% oxygen) and/or breathing support. This may be because they have had surgery and an anaesthetic, or because they are very unwell.

Different levels of breathing support are dependent on your baby’s condition at any given time. Any oxygen flow above two litres per minute will be humidified (the gas is warmed and moisture is added).

Babies in HDU rooms will usually only need high flow or low flow oxygen.

Breathing supports

The following are the different types of breathing supports used:

• Low flow oxygen via nasal prongs is delivered as 100% oxygen in increasing proportions of litres per minute up to 2 litres.
• High flow oxygen via nasal prongs is delivered as 21–100% oxygen in increasing proportions above 2 litres per minute.
• Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is delivered via a midline prong to both nostrils, or a single tube into one nostril, as 21-100% oxygen
• Ventilation can be delivered via a tube into the trachea (breathing tube that passes through the mouth or nose). There are many reasons why babies on Butterfly Ward need “to be ventilated”. These include being born very early, having sick lungs or needing medications to control pain after an operation, which may limit their ability to breathe on their own for a few hours to days. Ventilation may come via a ‘conventional ventilator’ which matches the breathing support to how your baby would breathe if they were able to do this for themselves.
  Some very unwell babies require additional specialised breathing support called high frequency oscillatory ventilation or high frequency jet ventilation. These two ventilators provide a type of ‘vibration’ for the lungs and your baby may or may not breathe normally separate to what the ventilator does.