Neonatology

Your neonatal care team

Our neonatal care team includes many specialists working together to care for your child:

• Board-certified neonatologists lead the neonatal nursery team and oversee your baby’s care. These doctors have special training in the care of newborns with medical issues.
• Neonatal nurses, nurse specialists and nurse practitioners, who have advanced training and education in the care of sick and premature newborns.
• Physical, occupational, speech and respiratory therapists help your infant with motor skills, issues with arm and leg positioning, feeding and breathing.
• Neonatal dietitians examine your baby’s nutritional needs and manage plans to improve on their nutritional goals.
• Lactation consultants provide you with one-one-on-one education and help with breastfeeding.
• Palliative care staff offer support and guidance, helping to maximize quality of life and minimize suffering, when your family faces a life-altering disease.
• Social workers help your family with financial and transportation issues, connect your with hospital and community resources, and provide emotional support while your newborn is in the nursery.
• Case managers follow your baby from when they arrive in the nursery until after they leave. They help work with your insurance company, coordinate your needs when you leave the hospital, and arrange home nursing visits if needed.
• Neonatal family navigators and community transition navigators help your family through a complex journey and assist with securing resources for your baby when they go home.

Our neonatology care team also has complete access to all pediatric subspecialists at Levine Children’s, including cardiologists, neurosurgeons, pulmonologists, nephrologists and gastroenterologists.

Our neonatal nurseries

We offer critical newborn care at 3 neonatal intensive care nurseries:

• Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery at Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte, NC
• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Jeff Gordon Children's Center in Concord, NC
• Neonatal Progressive Care Nursery at Levine Children's Hospital, which provides care and monitoring after the intensive care period

We also offer neonatal services at the following hospitals:

• Atrium Health Cleveland
• Atrium Health Lincoln
• Atrium Health Pineville
• Atrium Health Union
• Atrium Health University City

Our neonatal nurseries are equipped with the latest medical technology, including the ECMO heart-lung bypass for infants with respiratory failure, and therapeutic hypothermia (body cooling) for babies deprived of air. ECMO is available only at Levine Children's Hospital.

Additionally, MedCenter Air provides a specially trained team to transport the most critically ill infants in the region to Levine Children's Hospital, the region's primary referral center for neonates.