Neonatal care leaps forward in Niagara
New equipment, training a win for families
The birth of a premature child, and the care that can stretch for weeks or months afterwards, brings with it high levels of stress.
For some Niagara parents, that care might require travel away from home, and away from community and family support.
The number of families facing that hurdle is on the decrease, however, thanks to expanded services and equipment at Niagara Health’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in St. Catharines. With new provincial funding coming in, the unit has been able to add five beds for premature births, while expanding its staff complement, purchasing new equipment, enhancing staff training and developing a specialized interdisciplinary team for the unit.
“It’s a level-up of the care,” said NICU pediatrician Dr. Shiba Asim, explaining the primary difference is the unit will now be able to keep a greater number of premature babies here at home in Niagara, instead of sending them to McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton.
Previously, the unit would keep babies born after 32 weeks of gestation. With new equipment and training, that number has decreased to 30 weeks. That number means hundreds of babies born prematurely in Niagara will stay in their home community.
Director of patient care Laura Farrelly said roughly 15 per cent of the about 3,000 babies born annually in Niagara require care at the NICU. Last year that translated to 590 babies requiring NICU care.
“We send out about 300 to 400 every year,” said Farrelly, who expects a dramatic decrease in that number with the new investments in the unit.
“More than half of those babies will be able to stay, if not more,” she said.
In terms of equipment, the unit has purchased four new “Giraffe” baby bedisolettes. The incubators allow staff to more easily maintain temperature and climate controls for their tiny patients — even when opening the equipment to treat the infant — while integrating other advanced features. The new isolettes mean mothers can stay in the room with their babies. Other new equipment includes ventilators, IV pumps and an eye-test camera machine.
That last item marks a huge step forward for unit nurse-practitioner Amanda Symington. To monitor the progress of underdeveloped eyes, babies at the unit need their eyes checked once or twice a week. That meant a two-hour round trip to Hamilton for a 30-second
checkup.
“The day they go we make no adjustments to the baby’s care,” said Symington, explaining that basically meant the patients lost a whole day of progress every time they went for an exam. It’s a problem that is now a thing of the past with the new machine.
“It’s a tremendous step forward for the region,” she said.
The biggest benefit, beyond better medical care for the babies, is the fact more mothers can now stay with their baby, close to home, with their community and family there to support them.