Expectant parents never intend to use our neonatal intensive care unit. But when a child is born with complications that require skilled neonatal care, they're thankful it's readily available at Advocate Christ Medical Center. As a state-designated Level III perinatal center, we're specially equipped to stabilize and provide intense nursing care for critically ill infants, those who need surgery, as well as those who need monitoring because of premature birth, a low birth weight or other complications.

In fact, our success with newborns who have congenital heart disease, or need specialized cardiac treatment, is among the best in the nation. We're one of the few area medical centers that provides extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and jet ventilation for babies with severely immature lungs who need high-tech support as they develop.

We encourage parents to be here as well, with 24-hour visiting hours, to give their baby hands-on care and to support normal development and bonding.

This 30-bed intensive care nursery includes an eight-bed homebound nursery and four-bed intermediate nursery for babies who no longer have high-tech needs. Here, families can become more actively involved in their baby's care in preparation for discharge home.

Our neonatal intensive care unit makes Christ Medical Center one of the major referral centers serving the entire Chicago metropolitan area, Northern Indiana and Southern Wisconsin. A special transport team moves critically ill infants from outlying areas, supplying optimal care en route to our neonatal intensive care unit for sophisticated evaluation and treatment.

Our staff and services include:

•  Neonatologists
•  Neonatal Nurse Clinicians
•  Respiratory Therapists
•  Occupational Therapists
•  Physical Therapists
•  Social Workers
•  The Heart Institute for Children
•  Comprehensive Pediatric Subspecialty Care 

The neonatal intensive care unit serves as a link to comprehensive pediatric services offered through Advocate Hope Children's Hospital.