Imagine this birth story for a second. 35 weeks pregnant with your first little girl. Your baby shower was two days ago and you still need to get a car seat and the ever-important wipe warmer. You are teaching a classroom full of sixth-graders when your water breaks. Oh, for the love. A perfectly healthy pregnancy with no signs of preterm labor and bam! Baby is perfect in every way but is just so tiny and not ready to nurse. Weight loss, no latching, extreme jaundice. Level I NICU. Then, the doctors come to you and share that if she continues to lose weight she will be transferred to another hospital because they would not have the capacity to care for her. Imagine the fear, the questions, the frustration in having to move hospitals. Leaving the nurses you’ve come to know, leaving the hospital in which you were cared for, and limitations on your rooming-in because you would not be a patient at the new hospital as well. As if the surprise of an early baby and worry weren’t enough – let’s put this stress on a new mom. Why take that risk?
I share this story to say this: know what your hospital’s NICU provides and make the choice for the “just in case” situation. No mother plans to see their baby in the NICU, but a growing percentage of babies born spend time in the neonatal intensive care unit. Not all NICUs are created equal and it is important for us as mothers to be informed and to know what level of care our hospital provides. EIRMC’s Level III NICU has the capabilities of caring for preterm and critically ill term babies. Here in East Idaho, we are lucky to have a Level III NICU at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center that provides specialized care for the tiniest of miracles.
photo credit: Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center
When walking into the NICU at EIRMC, you walk through the Hall of Hope. Instant tears. The hallway is lined with beautiful photographs of kids holding photos of themselves as newborns in the NICU. It is without a doubt one of the most touching galleries I have ever seen. For some of these children, their mothers knew there could be complications – they were high-risk pregnancies, multiples, or for any number of reasons they knew there was a chance their babies would spend time in the NICU. For many, though, they had no idea they would spend those first days, weeks, or months with their child in a Level III NICU.
Why do I keep noting “Level III”?
There are different classifications for neonatal intensive care units based on the gestational weight and age of the newborn. A Level III NICU can care for babies born 22 weeks or later. This is amazing! EIRMC’s NICU has state-of-the-art technology to treat the most fragile of babies. Neonatologists (pediatricians with years of subspecialty training to care for sick or premature newborns) are on staff providing care 24/7. Meaning, your baby will have continuous care from doctors and nurses who are specialized in neonatal care. That constant care is provided by a large team of clinicians in the NICU, including neonatologists, Neonatal Nurse Practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, occupational and physical therapists, dieticians. This highly skilled team is committed to getting these fragile babies healthy.
We are lucky, here in the Idaho Falls area, to have our region’s only Level III NICU right in our backyard. The level of care Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center provides to the most delicate of babies in our region is simply amazing.
All NICUs are not created equal. As expecting moms, we have so many choices to make. Choosing a hospital with the highest level of care is making a conscious decision to know your baby will be taken care of no matter what. Even the healthiest of pregnancies can have unexpected circumstances that lead to NICU care. For Georgina, this was a reality.
“My first baby was born at 39 weeks weighing 8lb 7oz. We’d had a trouble-free pregnancy, with some extra monitoring due to my age. I had been pushing for at least 90 minutes, possibly longer, and when Declan finally emerged into the world he had the cord wrapped around his neck and fluid in his lungs. There was a lot of discussion over his incubator-crib-thingy about him and a NICU nurse was summoned. They took him back to the NICU due to low blood oxygen and poor breathing. I pretty much didn’t stop crying for the full four days. The nurses were my lifesaver. So calm, reassuring, and encouraging at all times. They are there all the time, never more than a step away from their charges and have an unlimited supply of reassuring words. They even made me smile through the tears a couple of times.”
For their whole lives, we will make decisions based on the “just in case” for our children. Here, take an extra snack “just in case.” I’ll bring a first-aid kit “just in case.” I need an EpiPen in each car “just in case.” Start from the very beginning: choose a hospital with a Level III NICU “just in case.”
