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Special and newborn intensive care

The question is always in the back of your mind—what if something goes wrong? Community has you covered. Thousands of babies have started life in the safe, caring environment of a Community Health Network hospital.

Special care nurseries

Community Hospitals East and South have Level II special care nurseries.

• Coming soon! Take a virtual tour of our special care nurseries.

Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)

Now open at Community Hospital North. Learn more about the new state-of-the-art maternity suites, pediatric unit and NICU at Community Hospital North.

Designed to be exceptionally sensitive to the needs of infants who need extra care, the private suites for babies in our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are technologically advanced and comfortable, with ample space for families.

• 36 large, private, developmentally-friendly neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) suites designed for advanced care and bonding with parents
• Special suites for multiples
• Sibling play room
• Six private suites for parents
• Neonatologists/specialty physicians on site 24/7
• The most advanced monitoring and communications system available—computerized light, heat, humidity and noise controls in the NICU reduce stress and enhance infant biological rhythms.
• Ample room in suites for families so they can be active in baby’s care
• Individual breast milk refrigerators/freezers

You and your baby have easy, automatic access to these services from any Community Health Network hospital with a physician order or referral.

More information about newborn intensive care

You can count on us to compassionately respond to the individual needs of your baby and family.

The most common need of a newborn in newborn intensive care is respiratory support due to prematurity, pneumonia, transient tachypnea of the newborn and sepsis. We provide ventilator and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) support as well as intravenous nutrition, central and peripheral lines, oxygen therapy, antibiotics and phototherapy.

In newborn intensive care, parents are active participants in their infant’s care through:

• Kangaroo care (skin to skin contact between infants and parents).
• Touch/massage therapy and developmental care as a way to nurture the newborns and to promote parental bonding.

Each family receives a special handbook personalized to each infant. It is a wonderful resource about the NICU and includes information about the following:

• High-risk newborns, including descriptions of disease processes
• Medications
• Equipment and other NICU-related information

Breastfeeding is important for babies in NICU:

• If your baby is in neonatal intensive care, a lactation (breastfeeding) consultant is available to you even after you have gone home.
• Breast pumps are available in NICU for your convenience.

A unique, handmade quilt for each baby

Since the NICU’s opening in 1998, hospital volunteers, community volunteers, students and Girl Scout groups have been generously donating hand-made infant-sized quilts for the babies. Each NICU infant receives one of these unique quilts given from the heart.

The quilt gifts are one way to demonstrate our philosophy that no two infants or families are alike.

Many families have told us that they have framed these quilts as a reminder of how tiny their infant(s) once were and the special care they received during their stay.