Newborn ICU

On October 11, 2004, the NICU at National Women's Hospital in Epsom moved to the new Women's Health floor on Level 9 at the Auckland City Hospital. This was the result of several years of planning.

Over recent years, there has been significant regional planning, part of which was related to a decrease in size of our NICU as cots were provided in Waitemata District Health Board areas.

Considerable attention was given to building a NICU which could meet the potentially conflicting needs of babies, families and staff.

The Level 3 area cares for infants who require full ventilation, infants born at less than 30 weeks gestation, and other infants who require intensive care support. There are 8 level 3 rooms, each with 2 cot spaces. In addition, there is a 2-bedded containing 2 cots, each set up as with the Level 3 cots. The Level 3 (and isolation) rooms are set up as "pods" of 3 rooms containing a maximum of 6 babies.	Level 3 infant space
The Level 2 area can accommodate 20 Level 2 babies, requiring CPAP, intravenous fluids, and antibiotics. All admissions who do not require Level 3 care are initially admitted to this part of the nursery. Infants who have been admitted to the Level 3 area are frequently transferred to Level 2 once they have recovered sufficiently from their acute illness. There are 5 rooms, each containing a maximum of 4 babies each. There is a "swing room" which can look after 4 Level 2 babies or 3 Level 3 babies.	Level 2 infant spaces
The other area is the Parent-Infant Nursery (or PIN). This is an area for low dependency Level 2 infants, with the focus being on preparing the baby and family for discharge. This has more of a nursery feel to the environment, and is not set up to provide intensive care or monitoring.	PIN