Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Jackson Health System is home to one of the largest newborn intensive care units in the nation, known worldwide for its leading-edge research to improve newborn care and its success in caring for critically ill infants. Because Jackson is an academic medical center, our littlest miracles are cared for by a multidisciplinary team of doctors, day and night.

The Schatzi and Stanley Kassal Project: Newborn Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Holtz Children’s Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center is designated a Regional Perinatal Intensive Care Center by the state of Florida and boasts some of the best survival rates and most successful outcomes in the country.

The Level IV NICU at Holtz Children’s Hospital is in the same building as the maternity unit in The Women’s Hospital at Jackson Memorial, and the Level II NICU at Jackson North Medical Center is close to the maternity unit in the Women’s Pavilion, making visitation easier and upholding our commitment to family-centered care.

Our family-centered NICU care includes:

• Lactation services available from board-certified lactation consultants and highly trained nurses to help with breastfeeding your baby and assist with alternatives when breastfeeding is not an option.
• Pasteurized human donor breast milk available to help supplement your baby’s diet and support the mother’s feeding goals.
• Bonding opportunities when clinically appropriate. These include skin-to-skin bonding, which is part of our standard of care.
• Pacifier-activated lullaby device that helps newborns improve non-nutritive sucking patterns, strengthen oral-motor skills, learn to feed faster, and provides an opportunity for parent-infant bonding. Many newborns in our NICU – particularly those born prematurely – can benefit from this music therapy intervention during which a special pacifier plays developmentally appropriate lullabies, sometimes recorded by the baby’s parents, when the baby successfully sucks on it.
• Education that helps parents learn more about their baby’s developmental needs. We offer monthly parenting classes, support groups, and infant CPR training.
• Parent-centered rounds, which in the NICU are part of the standard of care for all families.