NICU
The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) provides critical care to newborns who are ill or premature. Many factors may lead to a newborn being admitted to the NICU, including low birth weight or complications during delivery. The NICU staff works closely with parents to develop a treatment plan for their newborn.
Neonatal intensive care in Houston
If specialized support is needed, we can provide necessary care for your little ones.
At The Woman's Hospital of Texas, our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) units are equipped to treat babies that need extra medical attention. We're proud to offer 146 beds and dedicated monitoring for all premature and high-risk infants.
Expert advice, available 24/7
Free health-related information is just a phone call away. Our nurses help you understand your symptoms, treatment options and procedures. They will also help you find a provider or specialist and schedule an appointment.
Free health-related information is just a phone call away. Our nurses help you understand your symptoms, treatment options and procedures. They will also help you find a provider or specialist and schedule an appointment.
Critical care for your newborn's needs
Our 18,000 square-foot facility houses the technology and care practices needed to care for premature and critically ill babies. We are among a select number of hospitals in Texas that provide this level of care for high-risk newborns, with both advanced and intermediate-level NICUs available.
Level II NICU
Our intermediate-level NICU unit provides specialized treatment for babies who are born close to or before their due date, babies who are moderately ill and expected to quickly recover, and babies who have medical conditions requiring less-intensive monitoring. Heart and respiratory rate, blood pressure and temperature are monitored less frequently here than in the advanced NICU.
The 82 beds in this special care nursery include radiant warmers, incubators and open cribs. Nutrition may be given to babies in these beds by intravenous fluid (IV), tube feeding, bottle-feeding, or breastfeeding. Babies may go home or be transferred to our newborn nursery if their mother is still hospitalized.
Level IV NICU
Our advanced-level NICU offers the highest level of perinatal and subspecialty care for newborns with extreme prematurity, critical illness or the need for surgical intervention. Here, their heart and respiratory rate, blood pressure, temperature and oxygen levels are continually monitored.
In addition to meeting all Level III capabilities, our Level IV NICU can provide:
- Advanced imaging, including echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- Care for infants born earlier than 32 weeks gestation and weighing less than 1,500 grams
- Life support
- Respiratory support
- Total body cooling
Babies are transferred to the intermediate, Level II NICU when their condition improves and they no longer need intensive monitoring.
The Level IV NICU has 64 flat, open beds with a warmer overhead, as well as incubators that provide heat to keep them warm. If breathing support is needed, they will be connected to a ventilator or receive oxygen through other methods. Babies can also be fed with pumped breast milk or special formula through a feeding tube.
For certain babies with severe conditions, such as respiratory failure or lung disease, we offer extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). This advanced treatment uses a specialized machine to do the work of the heart and lungs, so the organs can heal. For additional information on NICU ECMO, please call our ECMO Coordinator, at (713) 790-8236.
NICU support services
There are many different features, resources and support services that comprise our NICU units. In addition to the elevated levels of monitoring and testing offered, our units also include physician sleep rooms, lactation rooms, a milk bank and two transition rooms that will allow parents to spend the night with their baby before being discharged home.
Additional resources include:
- Antepartum care — For women experiencing high-risk pregnancies who require bed rest, our 48-bed antepartum unit (APU) provides the additional support they and their vulnerable babies require before delivery.
- March of Dimes (NICU family support program) — We proudly partner with the March of Dimes to provide the NICU family support program. The program offers information and comfort during NICU, the transition home and if serious circumstances arise. It also provides professional education for NICU staff and promotes family-centered care in the NICUs. We are the only hospital in Houston with two full-time March of Dimes NICU family support program coordinators on-site.
- Multiples care — Multiple-gestation pregnancies are often considered high-risk, with multiples more often encountering challenges, including prematurity and low birth weight.
- NICU fetal transport — Our transport team provides 24/7 emergency care, and includes a neonatal nurse practitioner, transport nurse and respiratory therapist, all of whom have the skills and equipment to properly care for newborns as they're transported to the hospital. Our helicopter travels within a 150-mile radius of our main campus, with our airplane traveling within a 250-mile radius, and our ambulance within or beyond the limitations of our aircraft.
- Perinatal navigation program — This program was developed for families that have been identified as high risk, either because of an issue relating to the mother or baby before birth. This program helps coordinate specialist appointments and provides support for a variety of high-risk conditions.
For more information about the warm, devoted environment we have cultivated in the NICU, please visit our NICU stay and support page.