 Ministry of Health
NZ Government
©Copyright
Published:
04/07/2007
|
The Child Development Unit (CDU),
provides a follow up service for the highest risk infants managed by the Newborn
Service at National Women's Health, including all very low birth weight (VLBW) babies under 1500g, those with
perinatal asphyxia and other infants who have sustained serious complications in
the perinatal/neonatal period.
The service has two main aims:
- to detect any developmental
problems early (and refer infants for intervention in the community).
- to provide an audit of neonatal
care (the CDU report is included in the
National Women's Annual
Report).
|
|
Children are
referred by neonatologists in the Newborn Service. Families attend the CDU
at National Women’s Health where Registered Psychologists assess the
child’s cognitive and motor development at regular intervals from 9 or 18
months until the age of 4+ years. Parents are interviewed and at the end of
each session guidance is given regarding fostering the child’s development.
Approximately 400 children are individually evaluated each year.
Click here to download the
CDU parent information pamphlet |
Feedback to medical and
nursing staff, and others interested in the outcome of preterm children
is provided by annual reports and
publications, together with grand
rounds and lectures.
To date an important feature of the audit of VLBW infants has been the
excellent retrieval rate at 18 months. Despite the fact that a number of
the newborns are drawn from Northland and other centres in New Zealand,
follow up information has been obtained for over 90% of these high risk
infants. |
 |
Staff Members
|
- J. Anne Dezoete PhD
Registered Psychologist
- Janice Taylor MA (Hons)
Registered Psychologist
- Denny Wood
Secretary
|
 |
|
