Hospital care that focuses on the problems of the distressed newborn. Neonatal intensive care units, or NICUs, are designed to meet the unique needs of immature and ill newborns. These include special fluid requirements, oxygen management, temperature control, and drug dosages. Located primarily in major medical centers, NICUs are staffed by teams of neonatologists and nurses who are specially trained in the care of newborns.
The provision of a dedicated unit with special facilities, including one-to-one nursing and appropriate technology, to care for premature and seriously ill newborn babies. Paediatricians and neonatologists are involved in the running of such units. Not every maternity unit can provide intensive care: for example, the provision of artificial ventilation other than as a holding procedure until a baby can be transferred to a better-equipped and better-serviced unit. Such hospitals usually have special-care baby units, which are capable of looking after the needs of most, but not all, premature or ill babies.