Our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) serves critically sick infants who require attentive, focused care. The unit provides state-of-the-art care, delivered by highly skilled, dedicated and compassionate medical professionals.

The NICU is staffed 24 hours a day by neonatologists, nurse practitioners and nurses with specialized NICU training. They are supported by a team that includes respiratory therapists, Child Life Specialists, medical social workers, dieticians, pharmacists and rehabilitation therapists. All caretakers and visitors must check in and be buzzed into the secure unit.

The NICU is a Level III C Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with advanced abilities to care for medically fragile infants with most neonatal conditions, including those who undergo cardiac surgery. The NICU team also provides families with information and skills through classes, demonstrations, support groups and care conferences that equip them to care for their child.

Because parents with children in the Medical City Children’s Hospital NICU spend long hours by their children’s sides, we try to give them as much privacy and comfort as possible. Semi-private rooms include recliners, and waiting rooms offer TV and computers with Internet access. Breastfeeding mothers have access to breast pumps in all rooms, as well as a private, fully equipped breast-pumping room and the services of lactation nurses.

Medical City is the only hospital in North Texas where a mother facing a high-risk pregnancy can deliver her baby in the same facility that can treat and attend to any special needs of both mom and baby.

When children get closer to being ready to go home, the NICU offers a “rooming in” opportunity. Parents spend the night by their children and assume full care for the child—including the use of any special machines or instructions they will have at home. All the while, an RN provides guidance, advice and reassurance for the parents.