Neonatal care
Our Neonatal Unit at Antrim Area Hospital provides medical and nursing care to newborn babies, especially those who are premature, sick, or require specialised treatment.
The unit has three areas: a neonatal intensive care unit, a high dependency unit, and a special care baby unit.
We provide care for babies born over 27 weeks (28 weeks for twins) gestation and sick newborn babies who require additional support.
Watch: Antrim Neonatal Unit
The unit is staffed by neonatal nurses, medical staff, advanced neonatal nurse practitioners, enhanced neonatal nurse practitioners and a neonatal clinical educator. There are also Allied Health Professionals within the unit, including a developmental physiotherapist, occupational therapist, dietician and a speech and language therapist. A consultant paediatrician is on call 24 hours a day. Psychology support is also available for parents and siblings.
A neonatal infant feeding lead supports families with neonatal breastfeeding, however, all staff in the unit are trained to support breastfeeding.
Baby Friendly
Our Neonatal Unit at Antrim Area Hospital was the first neonatal unit in Northern Ireland to gain recognition from the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Baby Friendly Initiative. We received the prestigious Baby Friendly Award, which is an acknowledgement of the high standard of care delivered, not only to sick and vulnerable babies, but also their families.
Our team is committed to supporting parents to have close and loving relationships with their preterm or sick baby, enabling babies to receive breast milk, where possible, and, to value parents as partners in their baby’s care.
We have a philosophy of family integrated care – where parents are not seen as visitors, but as partners in their baby’s care. We have been awarded the BLISS Charter Silver Award for this work (a national accreditation), which has helped us assess our practices and make changes to better support parents and their babies.
Neonatal unit facilities
We provide families with:
- A bedroom for rooming-in, where a newborn infant stays in the same room as their mother, or for overnight stays, if your baby is unwell or receiving palliative care.
- A parent’s lounge, where tea and coffee is available and parents can make lunch and relax.
- Each cot space has a recliner chair to allow parents to nurse their baby and provide skin to skin. Privacy screens are available, if required.
- Car parking and meal vouchers for parents and carers.
Our service is part of the Northern Ireland Neonatal Network. Babies may be transferred between units to make a cot available for a preterm delivery in the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital in Belfast, or to facilitate families being closer to home.
Contact
Neonatal Unit
Tel: 028 9442 4170
