NICU
The short definition
A NICU is a neonatal intensive care unit — the hospital ward with the staff and equipment to care for premature and sick newborn babies.
What it actually means
It is usually said out loud as "nick-you" rather than spelled out. Highly trained staff and advanced life support equipment, built around the needs of newborns rather than adapted from adult intensive care.
Not every maternity hospital has one. If bub needs that level of care, the family may have to travel to a different hospital, which is a logistics problem nobody plans for. Babies who need intensive care usually go to a NICU within the first 24 hours after birth.
A NICU is quiet and often dimly lit on purpose, so babies are not overwhelmed by noise and light. The aim is to handle babies as little as possible. Each baby is in an incubator or heated cot, with monitors attached.
Parents are usually welcome 24 hours a day, while other visitors are limited. Staff teach parents how to care for their own baby there: nappies, bathing, feeding, holding. They also show them skin-to-skin, which the hospital calls kangaroo care.
Where Dadda will hear it
In the worst way: fast, in a corridor, as an acronym. He may also meet it long before, because hospitals explain during pregnancy whether they have one.
If his baby is in a NICU, it is also the word he will be repeating down the phone to every relative who calls.
Not to be confused with
- An SCN. A special care nursery is the step below intensive care. Babies in a NICU are more seriously ill and need more care than babies in an SCN. When a baby no longer needs the NICU, they often move to an SCN.
- A place he is shut out of. Parents are usually welcome around the clock and are treated as part of the care team. Hand sanitising on the way in is taken seriously, because babies there catch infections easily.