Pediatrics
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
All parents look forward to healthy pregnancies and routine deliveries. But unexpected challenges or complications sometimes occur. Mothers-to-be and newborns whose needs require more advanced care no longer have to travel to Tacoma or downtown Seattle. Valley Medical Center's new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) provides special monitoring, treatment, technology (including ventilation), and staff for sick or premature infants.
Neonatal intensive care at Valley Medical Center offers neonatologists and nurse practitioners available around the clock. Staff also practice developmental care, which research associates with more positive outcomes in the sickest infants. In cases where premature or fragile infants require complex surgery, they will be transferred to Swedish Medical Center, our partner in neonatal services.
During 2005, VMC's NICU was remodeled, permitting families to room together with their infants.
Parm Jeet Kaur had her twin babies at Valley Medical Center. They were two months early and weighed just 3 pounds each. "We had excellent care and friendly nurses who gave us all the privacy we needed," Kaur says. "If we had been in Seattle I would only have gotten to see them twice a week or so. But since they are at Valley, I can be with them two or three times a day."