The period from birth to 28 days of life is called the neonatal period and infants in this are termed as a neonate or newborn baby. The nursing care required for neonates or new born babies is known as neonatal care nursing. Pediatric nursing is the medical care of neonates and children up to adolescence. Neonatal nursing include care of new born baby who has any health problems shortly after birth it also encompasses care for those babies who have long term problems related to their prematurity or illness after birth. Neonatal problems vary from prematurity, birth defects, infection, cardiac malformations and surgical problems which require special care for the growth of the infant.
There are four different levels of the neonatal nursing includes:
- Caring of before birth for a healthy newborn.
- Taking care of newborn babies and special care for premature or ill newborns.
- The Neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU), treats newborns who cannot be treated in the other levels and are in need of high technology to survive, such as breathing and feeding tubes.
- Extensive care of the most critically and complex newborns. This facility will have 24 hrs resident neonatologists and surgeons. They are involved with intricate surgical repairs like congenital cardiac issues and acquired malformations.
