A-Newborn
HRS Women’s Hospital Newborn Intensive Care Unit provides second level intense care services, and is furnished with equipment that are the latest examples of technological advancement. It is a unit with six incubators, one open bed. Beside each incubator there is a monitor (a bed-side monitoring device suitable for tracking the vital signs of the patient), a pulse oximetry device (a device tracking oxygen and pulse) and an infusion pump (a device adjusting the serum of the baby).
Premature babies are followed-up and treated in our unit. Babies with respiratory malfunction are connected to a breathing apparatus, surfactant therapy (Opening up of the lungs and ensuring easy breathing for premature babies) is applied, their proper treatment and feeding is provided by the application of navel catheter, and are monitorized for 24-hour tracking. While the treatment of newborn babies with high bilirubin levels by giving phototherapy rays, a practice used in previous years and which is still applied in many other centers, lasts for four to seven days; our treatment, with the LED phototherapy devices that we use, is concluded in one to two days. The babies’ bilirubin monitoring is done from the forehead, workup by drawing blood is only done in case very high levels are detected. As premature babies are especially effected by noise and light, special earphones and covers over incubators are used during their first week of stay, in order to prevent them from being adversely effected by noise and light (High noise causes cerebral hemorrhage and excessive light damages the eyes). In our unit, gonadal shielding is utilized to prevent the babies’ gonads (ovaries) from being effected during screenings. The transfer of the baby from the operating room or delivery room to the newborn unit is successfully ensured with our ventilated (breathing apparatus) transport incubator. Our unit contains one isolation room, where babies with infection are monitored and treated separately and specifically. Our Newborn Intensive Care Unit is fitted with special air conditioners, called hepafiltres, which clean the air of microbes.
Patient tracking and treatment is continued for 24 hours by our Pediatrics specialists and nurses.
Our unit is a family-oriented Newborn Intensive Care Unit, open for visits. The parents of inpatients, as long as they abide by the unit’s rules for cleanliness and clothing, may visit their babies any time of the day, they can help with the baby’s care under the supervision of medical staff, and actively be involved in all care and treatment decisions. In addition, our unit provides Kangaroo Care (Giving the baby for a short term to its mother’s bare chest during administering serum or oxygen) for premature or troubled babies. It has been shown that Kangaroo Care has positive effects on the baby’s heart rate and respiration, as well as providing the mother to lactate.
Applied Procedures and Treatment:
- Newborn infections (pneumonia, bronchiolitis, skin infection, urinary tract infection, etc.)
- Newborn dehydration and fluid-electrolyte disorders
- Kidney failure in newborns
- Metabolic problems of newborn (hypoglycemia, hypocalcaemia, etc.)
There are 1500 births in our hospital on average. Pediatricians and nurses with Newborn Animation Certificates (NRP) are present in all normal and caesarean births. Depending on the course of the delivery, a team equipped with all substructural equipment awaits ready for immediate intervention. After birth, healthy babies are monitored while with their mothers. Each healthy baby is monitored beside their mother by pediatricians and pediatric nurses for 24 hours. Until the baby beside its mother is discharged, vital signs (pulse, respiration, body temperature) and body weight are monitored and recorded in their files; they are examined twice a day, or more in case of problems, and treated by our pediatricians.
In our baby-friendly hospital, all babies are handed to their mothers as soon as they are born and ae breastfed in the first half an hour. The training and support regarding breastfeeding is provided by our pediatrician, who is both educated on and also who gives education on BREASTFEEDING COUNSELLING, and also by our pediatric nurses. At our hospital, breastfeeding counselling starts before birthgiving and continues after even birth. Information to mothers is provided by our breastfeeding consultant regarding their questions and problems on breast milk and/or breast problems both at our hospital and also via telephone 24/7.
After discharge, newborn babies are called for controls on the fifth day. During their first control, besides their general examination, breastfeeding inspection is also carried out and heel lancing is done in order to scan for biotinidase deficiency phenylketonuria and hypothyroid illnesses. On their second controls a hearing test is performed, and when they become two-month old, ultrasonography is done for hip dislocation diagnosis.
B-General Pediatrics
Follow-up and treatment of children between ages 0 to 18 are done in the child policlinic. During the follow-up of healthy babies, their monthly growth, development and nutrition is evaluated, mothers are given necessary advice on this matter. Trainings are given especially on breast milk and baby nutrition and all mothers are kept informed with brochures. All the vaccines of babyhood and childhood are provided at our hospital. For children of ages 0 to 18; the diagnosis, treatment, examination and follow-up of all illnesses such as inflammatory diseases, asthma, respiratory tract infections are carried out at our hospital.