Neonatal Intensive Care
The arrival of your baby is a joyful and exciting time – one of your family's most important life events. When a newborn baby needs special care, it can be an emotional and challenging time for new parents. At DeTar Hospital North, the Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) team offers specialized services for newborns in need of additional care, close to home.
DeTar Hospital North’s nine-bed NICU provides access to equipment and resources in an environment that supports and strengthens your baby's delicate immune system. The NICU offers an optimal environment for maintaining a baby's proper body temperature, as well as delivering nourishment to help build little muscles and strengthen vital organs in those first few days after birth.
Babies come to the NICU for many reasons: they can be premature, very small, born with a condition that requires special attention or monitoring or have experienced difficulties during delivery. Sometimes your baby needs a little more time to mature before he or she is ready to go home. The NICU provides the extra level of support and care your baby needs.
Specially trained neonatal care professionals utilize advanced technology, and the NICU is staffed 24 hours a day by highly-specialized neonatal nurses and doctors who are focused on the needs of newborns and their parents. All DeTar NICU nurses have completed the Small Baby Care Specialist Program – an advanced education initiative on caring for infants with extremely low birth weight – and S.T.A.B.L.E. training on stabilizing a neonate; four team members have obtained national certification in the care of these fragile babies. We also offer critical congenital heart defect screenings prior to every NICU discharge.
As part of our commitment to provide these special babies with the care they need, neonatologists with Onsite Neonatal Partners provide 24/7 in-house neonatology coverage to DeTar NICU patients.
Neonatologists
A neonatologist is a physician with a subspecialty in pediatrics who has years of special training in the care of newborn infants, especially those that are fragile, ill or premature.
Services
Onsite Neonatal Partners will provide the following services at DeTar Hospital North:
- Prenatal consults (inpatients and outpatients)
- Attend all high-risk deliveries
- Care for all babies requiring intensive and special care
- Hearing screenings for all babies
Your Baby's Stay in the NICU
The length of time your baby will stay in the NICU is determined by the nature of care he or she needs. While DeTar Hospital North's team of specially trained nurses will deliver the baby's day-to-day care, the most important person involved in your baby's treatment is you. In addition to medical care, bonding time with parents is important for your new baby. Talk with your doctor to learn what is best for your baby and how you can participate in his or her care. Sometimes, being held close and cuddled is the best medicine for a baby – and who better to do this than a parent.
Visiting
Our facilities are designed to put parents and family members at ease and provide a comfortable environment while visiting. To access the NICU, please come to the second floor postpartum nurses station. Free wireless internet access is available in all areas of the hospital.
Patient Success Story
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Upon preparing for the arrival of my baby girl, I didn’t really have any inkling as to if she was going to arrive early, until the day before she was born. I actually went into the hospital the day before and after discussing different options with Dr. Torres, she recommended it best that I deliver the next morning.
Paisley was in the hospital for a total of 35 days. She remained in the NICU for 33 days and prior to discharge I was able to room in with her for two days. I was often at the hospital during most the day to help care for and comfort Paisley in the NICU. While rooming in, the NICU nurses continued to care for her and assured me that Paisley was healthy and safe to go home. As Paisley couldn’t leave the NICU, rooming in at DeTar North allowed for me to stay in a separate room in the hospital so that I could be actively involved in her care.
Paisley being in the NICU allowed for me to be home every night with my oldest daughter, but I always knew which staff were taking care of her, and that she would be in good hands. I knew she was comfortable and taken care of. I called as many times as I wanted to and the nurses called me if anything happened regarding her breathing or feeding. The communication between the staff and myself was reassuring because I knew all that was going on regardless of the time of day.
The precautionary procedures completed by the staff, such as the carseat test and additional communication about her care helped to lower my anxieties; I would have hated to leave the hospital with her knowing she wouldn’t be at optimal health. Extra attention paid to my baby’s function and her health by the staff helped me to build trust in them.
During the entirety of Paisley’s stay in the NICU, I was nervous, but everyone was truly great. I worked in labor and delivery roughly 5 years ago, so I knew a little of what to expect, but being on the other side as a patient and not a caregiver, I still was comfortable due to the amazing staff caring for her.
If I could share anything with expectant mothers that may have to use the NICU, I would say it’s best to try to get to know and trust your nurses and the physicians that also help to take care of your baby. Everyone from the nursing staff to occupational, speech, and respiratory therapists are there to help and being able to make a connection with them deepened the sense of trust I had already had knowing I couldn’t do anything for Paisley myself but trust them. Once that trust was developed, all of the dots sort of connected on their own.
Really, the staff’s main goal is the same as yours, to get your baby home; for them to be happy and healthy. As much as you want your baby home, they want to make sure they’re able to confidently send them off with you. Without the staff at DeTar North’s NICU and guidance from my doctor, who knows how long it would have been that I would be without my Paisley, as happy and healthy as she is, now.”