Ministry of Health
NZ Government

The neonatal service at National Women's is a national and regional referral centre, which provides major services for the care of premature and sick babies. It is one of the largest units of its kind in Australasia.

The service has an emphasis on around the clock support and advice for parents. Breastfeeding support and mothercraft is provided in the community as well as in the hospital. A specialist homecare nursing service provides support to parents at home within the first week following discharge of their baby from the newborn unit.

• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Level 2 & Level 3 care

• Parent Infant Nursery (PIN)

• Care of babies requiring surgical procedures

• Paediatric care of babies on postnatal wards with their mothers

• Paediatric outpatient follow-up clinic

• Newborn homecare service - follow-up of the high risk newborn post-discharge

• Dysmorphology and Geneticist Specialist

• Child development unit - follow-up of babies with a birth weight less than 1500 grams

• Neonatal Emergency Transport Service
• Specialist Lactation Management
• Sibling Playgroup Programme

working in the Newborn Service include:

	Paediatricians with particular expertise in the care of babies who are unwell, premature or have special needs. Other medical staff include resident medical officers, registrars and house surgeons.
	Neonatal Nurse Practitioners look after premature or unwell babies at delivery, and provide ongoing care as part of the paediatric team.
	Neonatal Nurses look after newborn babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the Parent Infant Nursery
	Karitane Nurses provide care to healthy but small premature babies and the Neonatal Homecare Nurses provide care to babies in the community, following discharge from hospital, who have been born prematurely or who have required special care.
	A Family Liaison Nurse, Lactation Consultant and a Clinical Psychologist specialising in child development also work in the Newborn Service.

Further Information

The detailed website for the newborn service can be found on         http://www.adhb.govt.nz/newborn       

Parentcare - Maatua Tiaki

 

•  Parentcare is a community support group based at National Women's. The group provides support for parents of premature and sick babies as well as a library and baby shopping service to cater for the special needs of premature babies.

• Contact details:   parentcare: 630-9943 extn 3223

Further Information

The detailed website for parentcare can be found on http://www.parentcare.org.nz