Neonatology
Sometimes the smallest patients face the biggest challenges. Neonatologists can help by providing the most advanced medical care designed exclusively for infants.
Our expert team adopts a family-centered, multidisciplinary approach to nurture the tiniest babies. We support families from the high-risk pregnancy diagnosis through intensive care and maintain our partnership post-discharge. Our team of specialists provides follow-up care in the Center for Healthy Families, which includes coordinating subspecialty visits and continuous support of families for ongoing health needs that may require readmission to the hospital.
For families affected by high-risk pregnancy conditions or complications following delivery, our Fetal and Neonatal Care Center offers prenatal support in collaboration with our NICU team. We provide level IV neonatal care, which is the highest level according to the American Academy of Pediatrics standards.
University of Chicago specialists offer all prenatal and postnatal diagnostic tests and treatments, as well as consultations from surgical and pediatric subspecialists. We use cutting-edge approaches to help improve outcomes for critically ill newborns, including:
- Periviability counseling and support
- Neonatal neurocritical care monitoring
- Therapeutic hypothermia
- Holistic nutritional support
- Advanced respiratory care
- Pulmonary hypertension management, including extracorporeal life support (ECMO)
Why Choose Comer Children's for Neonatology?
Offering a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to neonatal care, our team includes:
- Neonatologists
- Pediatric subspecialists
- Surgical subspecialists
- Procedure team
- Interventional radiology
- Neonatal sleep medicine
- Neonatal nurse practitioners
- Specially trained nursing staff
- Pediatric social workers
- Physical therapists
- Occupational therapists
- Speech therapists
- Feeding specialists
- Lactation consultants
- Respiratory therapists
- Neonatal nutrition specialists
- Clinical pharmacists
- Complex discharge planning
- Child Life
- Long term outpatient complex care and developmental follow up
This team works closely with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology to operate the University of Chicago Medicine Perinatal Center and Fetal Neonatal Care Center. Our center provides comprehensive neonatal and obstetrical diagnostic and treatment facilities in affiliation with community hospitals.
Our neonatology experts provide comprehensive care for babies with a range of critical health challenges, including complications related to pre-term births, fetal anomalies, genetic conditions, infection, respiratory conditions, pulmonary hypertension, and neurologic issues.
We are a tertiary referral center for multiple community hospitals from Northern Indiana to Southern Illinois and beyond. Along with our state-of-the-art approaches and leading expertise, our physicians are equipped to treat the most critically ill babies.
We believe in family-centered care. This means taking care of not only the infant, but also the well-being of all affected family members. We provide access to Ronald McDonald House and Sleep rooms along with discounts at local hotels to allow families traveling long distances to be close to their infants. Our Child Life Team provides sibling and family support. Our neonatology team regularly hosts a "Parent Night" for family members to meet with health care providers and ask questions. We also sponsor an annual reunion for families and grads of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) so they can meet with their "old NICU friends."
Helicopter and ground transports are available for critically ill newborns or pregnant women with emergency needs within a 200-mile radius of Chicago through the University of Chicago Medicine Aeromedical Network (UCAN). For providers who would like to request a patient transfer, please call 1-855-834-4782.
Our youngest patients benefit the most from our close ties between research and clinical care. Their health later in life is affected by their development today in the NICU. Research in the NICU is looking at several aspects of infant development and care such as sleep, treatments for respiratory distress, the gut microbiome, and brain injury and neurodevelopment. Our experts are funded by the National Institutes of Health and the March of Dimes.
The Stephen NICU also partners closely with the Center for the Science of Early Trajectories to better understand the development happening during the postnatal period, and how we can improve it.