This year, City of Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, center, joined employees at UAB and Children’s of Alabama to celebrate the five-year anniversary of the NICU Bookworms program and recognize all that has been accomplished since its establishment. (UAB) ” data-large-file=”https://www.birminghamtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/bookworm_nicu_2026_stream-1024×768.jpg” />By Anna Jones | UAB News

Premature and sick newborns are at high risk of having neurodevelopmental delays that can affect their language and reading skills, particularly when they are in a neonatal intensive care unit. The University of Alabama at Birmingham and Children’s of Alabama launched the NICU Bookworms reading program in 2021. This program helps reduce these deficits, increase parent-infant bonding and encourage shared reading starting at birth for all babies.

This year, City of Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin joined employees at UAB and Children’s of Alabama to celebrate the five-year anniversary of the program and recognize all that has been accomplished since its establishment. Mayor Woodfin joined families in UAB’s Regional Newborn Intensive Care Unit to read to some of UAB Medicine and Children’s of Alabama’s smallest patients.

Since its establishment, the NICU Bookworms program has gained significant popularity among families and continues to expand. The program has served almost 5,000 families and distributed close to 10,000 books since 2021.

While the program was established to help infants, it has been proved to help parents of babies in the NICU as well. Research has shown that depression and stress among parents present a significant barrier to reading aloud to their preterm infants. Since the program’s inception, the rate of parents’ regularly reading to infants increased from 34 percent at admission to 75 percent at discharge.

The NICU Bookworms program has served almost 5,000 families and distributed close to 10,000 books since its inception in 2021.

Preterm and sick newborns lack a significant amount of human sound exposure needed to help their brains develop during this period of rapid brain growth. They have a harder time reacting to external stimulation while maintaining stability in bodily systems, which can cause them to become overstimulated and stressed. Reading provides positive auditory stimulation for these babies.

“We are incredibly proud of all that we have been able to accomplish through the NICU Bookworms program over the last five years,” said Viral Jain, M.D., a pediatrician at UAB and Children’s of Alabama. “It has been an honor to encourage parents to read to their babies, fostering meaningful parent-infant connections and providing support during what can be a stressful time for families.”

To help expand access to books for parents, two book vending machines have been installed at the UAB RNICU. Parents earn coins for the vending machines by participating in parent-infant bonding activities.

“Through the NICU Bookworms program, we hope to help each family understand the importance of reading early and often, and give them resources to procure books for their children’s library,” said Sandra Milstead, family nurse liaison in the UAB Women and Infants Center.

The NICU Bookworms program is supported by book donations from Reach Out and Read-Alabama and Legacy Federal Credit Union. To donate new books, visit the UAB RNICU Wish List. Additional gifts can also be made to the UAB RNICU and CCN here.

Based on reporting by Birmingham Times.

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