A new NICU is way overdue
A family with a premature and/or critically ill new baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) needs three things: the best medical care; physical separation from other families to prevent infection; and private space where they can bond, and parents can sleep. In SickKids current NICU, we can only provide the first one.A Level 3 NICU is where the sickest, most vulnerable patients are treated. There are seven in Ontario. When babies who need treatment above and beyond what their regional Level 3 NICU can provide, they’re referred to SickKids. About 800 a year come here. Our NICU is the best hope for the sickest of the sick. So everything about how it operates – from layout to equipment, from the glass in the windows to the heating and cooling system – needs to be the best it can be.
“We know a child gets better when parents are near.”
These are functional problems. But our biggest issue is simple privacy.
Imagine you’re a mom who comes here. You’ve just had a baby, you’re recovering yourself – often from surgery – and the best our NICU can currently offer you is a chair in the taped-off zone around your baby’s bedside.
It would be so much better for your recovery if you were in your own space – with a bed to rest in, and your very sick baby by your side, being cared for by our world-class team.
That’s how it will be. As SickKids embarks on a 10 year transformation of our campus, the NICU will be completely reimagined – with single-child rooms, places for mom and dad to sleep, and calm for premature brains to develop, which is critical (from 26 weeks gestation to term, brain weight increases 400% – the same amount as from term to adulthood). In the privacy of these rooms, the risk of infection is reduced, children can heal, and families can really form.
As Karen Kinnear, SickKids Clinical VP says, “We know a child gets better when their parents are near.” This is why what’s next is a new NICU.
