Blue Ridge HealthCare's Special Care Nursery
Meeting the Needs of Burke County's Early Arrivals

By ANNA WILSON - Blue Ridge HealthCare

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SPECIAL TO THE NEWS HERALD

Nina Hollifield expected her second pregnancy to be uneventful, much like the birth of her son Christopher in 1995.

That all changed when Nina learned she was going to have her baby early. She knew that at 34 weeks, her child would be considered premature, and it might be days before she'd be able to hold her new daughter.

But Nina and her husband, Mark, a minister at Hefner Memorial Baptist Church in Marion, quickly discovered Blue Ridge HealthCare's Special Care Nursery. The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Grace Hospital made it possible for the Hollifield's baby to stay in Burke County for treatment.

"It was such a relief," Nina said.

Many parents-to-be have found relief in the Special Care Nursery since it opened in April 2004 as almost 150 babies have received extra special care. The Level III NICU is equipped to care for babies born as early as 32 weeks - considered eight weeks too early by most standards.

The NICU enables families of premature babies to stay closer to home, make more frequent visits, and have relatives and friends close by for support.

These families can trace their good fortune back to a survey taken four years ago of 400 women of child-bearing age. These women identified a special care nursery as the number one need in Burke County. Almost three years of planning went into Blue Ridge HealthCare's (BRHC) response - a vow to spend almost $6 million renovating the entire third floor at Grace as part of a $100 million Hallmark Services plan.

The first part of that vow was getting a NICU up and running. With recent approval by the state, the third floor renovation will include a new nursery; an expanded Special Care Nursery; and 16 rooms designed to keep the mom in one room for labor and delivery, recovery and postpartum.

"Today, 'single room maternity care' using LDRP (labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum) rooms is the best standard of care," said Lea R. Walls, BRHC's Director of Women's and Children's Services. "We will be implementing couplet care where the baby is in the room 24/7 with one nurse assigned to that baby and mother. The parents are not required to take care of their baby, but they can or watch the nurse, ask questions, and learn. Physician exams will be performed in the room and this will provide a great opportunity for questions to be answered."

"That's important for the mother and baby without complications," Walls added, "but for the baby with complications, our Special Care Nursery is essential."

Currently, the Special Care Nursery is home to four Giraffe OmniBeds, which is the best equipment on the market. As demand for neonatal services grows, BRHC hopes to expand the nursery with additional beds in the future. Babies placed in these technologically advanced beds do not have to be moved until they are discharged from the hospital to go home.

When a "preemie" has difficulty regulating body temperature, the baby is placed in one of these beds and heated from below by the special mattress pad or from above by a heat lamp. The beds also can be enclosed with a clear plastic lid to form an isolette or incubator that will protect the baby even more.

Tiny intravenous tubes feed the baby who is unable to eat. Computers constantly monitor the baby's heartbeat and rhythm, breathing rate, temperature and oxygen in the blood. Because preemies' lungs have not fully developed, the babies sometimes have difficulty breathing on their own and require assistance from a ventilator. They also may be unable to regulate their body temperature or take food by mouth.

Special needles are used to draw blood from an infant's umbilical cord instead of having to stick their tiny feet or hands.

The room is kept quiet, and has low light to accommodate the preemies' sensitive eyes. The number of wires and array of technological equipment surrounding a baby in the darkened NICU can overwhelm parents at first.

"It was scary," Nina said on seeing Felicia for the first time after she was placed on the ventilator. "My prayers are that nobody ever has to use the NICU, but if your child comes early this is the best place."

Under the care of the neonatal staff, Felicia continued to thrive in the NICU and was discharged 11 days later.

The length of hospital stay for these infants depends on how long they were carried by their mother. A baby born at 33 weeks will face a stay of three weeks or longer, according to Vijaya Kumar Reddy, MD, BRHC's full-time neonatologist. "It also depends upon whether the child is stable, able to maintain their temperature and eating on their own," he added.

Preemies aren't the only babies to use the NICU. In fact, the first baby to use the Special Care Nursery weighed a whopping 8 pounds 10 ounces and only missed his due date by one day. But he had trouble regulating his breathing and was placed in one of the beds so he could be closely monitored. Prior to the opening of BRHC's Special Care Nursery this baby boy would have been taken by ambulance or helicopter out of the county to receive care.

For more information about the Special Care Nursery or birthing services at Blue Ridge HealthCare, call 580-6303.

SPECIAL CARE NURSERY IS FIRST STEP TOWARD NEW WOMEN’S CENTER

The third floor at Grace Hospital will soon be home to a new women’s and children’s center, an important part of Blue Ridge HealthCare’s (BRHC) redevelopment plans at both Grace and Valdese Hospitals. 

 “In making our plans for the future, we asked women in the community what was important to them and our plans reflect that. The number one need they identified was a special care nursery for premature or at-risk babies, so we opened that in April 2004,” said Laura Lambeth, BRHC’s Senior Vice President for Patient Care and Physician Services. “That was really the first piece of our new center, but it’s only one of many exciting things to come over the next couple of years.”

 The new center will include 14 home-like suites where expectant moms will be able to labor, deliver their newborn, recover and provide post-partum care to their little one. Two new nurseries will be built to care for normal newborns and the special needs of  “premies.”  For women who require a C-section delivery, the new center will feature a C-section suite specially designed for the procedure. 

 For the first time, women who are in the hospital for gynecological care will have their own private area apart from the birthing suites. Plans include eleven comfortable private rooms for GYN patients.

 “When you add these facilities to the new technology and treatments we will be putting in place at Grace and Valdese to detect, diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, bone and joint disease and other threats to our well-being, you can see that meeting the unique needs of women is a growing priority for us at Blue Ridge HealthCare,” Lambeth said.

 “Our goal is that women will find virtually everything they need for leading edge, convenient, compassionate care right here, without the added stress and expense of leaving our community.  We are committed 100% to meeting that goal,” Lambeth added.

The second largest employer in Burke County, Blue Ridge HealthCare serves a four-county area and includes Grace and Valdese hospitals, Blue Ridge Home HealthCare, Grace Heights and College Pines Health & Rehabilitation Centers, Grace Ridge Retirement Community, Phifer Wellness Center and a number of physician practices.