Nemours Children’s Hospital, one of Delaware’s primary healthcare providers for specialized birth and pediatric care, is increasing its services and capacity.
The hospital's advanced delivery and care options serve moms and infants with a wide range of diagnosis, such as spina bifida or congenital heart disease.
Julie Moldenhauer, Executive Director of the Institute for maternal fetal health at Nemours Children's Health, said the immediate expansion focuses on increasing services it provides before birth: prenatal diagnosis and fetal intervention care.
Previously, Delawareans had to travel out-of-state for an in-utero procedure or a fetal surgical operation.
“With the buildout here at Nemours Children's, we are now able to keep these families closer to home, keep them closer to their support systems and keep them in their home state by being able to provide this care right here,” she said.
According to Delaware Health and Social Services, approximately three percent of 10,0000 babies born in the state annually will have a birth defect.
Not all of these will be life altering, Moldenhauer said. About 2 percent of births will require specialty care during pregnancy and after birth.
“We knowit’sa very challenging time – to know that your newborn baby is going to go to an intensive care unit or is going to need extra support right at birth,” she said. “Helping mom and the rest of the family navigate these turbulent waters, that’s really what we’re here for.”
The expansion also means growing the delivery unit for pregnancies that need additional monitoring and care for children.
By April, Nemours Children’s Hospital’s delivery unit will have additional recovery and monitoring rooms. The unit will have three dedicated operating rooms and a family wellness center.
At the wellness center, people can visit while a mom or infant are under the hospital’s care.
Medically complex births have higher out of pocket costs within the first three years of life, according to the Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation tracker, which Moldenhauer acknowledged.
Part of that, she said, is the prolonged time families have to spend in an intensive care setting like a NICU, which might not be close to home.
To mitigate this, people can stay at the Ronald McDonald House, which is located next to Nemours, Moldenhauer said. The hospital also has social workers and insurance coordinators to help people navigate payment.