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Mom cuddling baby in the NICU

Neonatology

Meet Our Care Team

CHKD's neonatal specialists offer consultation, assessment, emergency, and continuing care services for premature and critically ill infants, as well as long-term follow-up of NICU patients and inpatient neonatal consultation at local hospitals.

Contact Us

Phone: (757) 668-7456
*For non-urgent calls during regular hours.

Fax: (757) 668-9255

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Questions about your bill? Please call (757) 668-7200.

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Baby in an isolette in CHKD's NICU. Looking and smiling at the camera.

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Neonatal Stepdown Unit

Our NICU is the region's largest and most sophisticated critical care facility for newborns. Newborns who need intensive medical attention are admitted to CHKD's NICU every year from hospitals throughout southeastern Virginia, the Eastern Shore, and northeastern North Carolina. Most are born prematurely - some as early as 23 weeks gestation. Others suffer from severe heart and lung conditions or birth defects that require early surgical intervention.

The Region's Largest, Most Sophisticated NICU

CHKD operates the region's only non-military Neonatal Intensive Care Unit certified by the state as a subspecialty nursery. This means the NICU at CHKD is the only one in the region that meets the stringent requirements to provide intensive care for high-risk critically ill neonates. The neonatologists also provide continuous coverage and high-risk delivery services at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

Our physicians are all board-certified in both pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine. The NICU staff also comprises a team of specially trained neonatal nurses and nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, radiologists, transport specialists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, child life specialists, educators, and social workers.

CHKD is the only NICU in the region that meets Virginia's staffing requirement of having physicians in 21 different pediatric subspecialties. As a result, the hospital is recognized throughout the region as the premier provider of care for high-risk newborns.

Neonatal Transport

Using CHKD's specially equipped mobile intensive care units, two highly skilled transport teams are available 24 hours a day to transport infants from referring institutions to CHKD. If necessary, the Nightingale helicopter and air ambulance services are also available.

Referrals to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit may be made to physicians and staff at birth hospitals by calling (757) 668-7448, or Doctors Direct at (757) 668-9999 or 1-800-207-2022.

Neonatal Follow-Up Clinic

CHKD's Neonatal Follow-Up Clinic provides assessments of infants at high risk for developmental delays based on diagnosis or complications during perinatal or neonatal life. 

Neonatal/Perinatal Outreach Center

Designated by the Commonwealth of Virginia as the Regional Perinatal Center for eastern Virginia, CHKD's Neonatal/Perinatal Outreach Center (NPOC) is responsible for providing and coordinating a wide variety of services and programs for professionals who deliver neonatal and perinatal health care. 

The center serves as the regional leader in seeking ways to improve the quality of health care in eastern Virginia for patients, families, and communities. 

Working closely with the hospital's neonatologists, the NPOC staff coordinates and provides a variety of important services for area hospitals and professionals, including:  

  • Collection and distribution of neonatal transport patient data 
  • Maternal Neonatal Transport Case Reviews 
  • Education 
  • Research  

All newborns who are transported to CHKD's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are followed by the staff of the Neonatal Perinatal Outreach Center. Ongoing communication regarding the infant's condition throughout the NICU course is provided to the referring physicians and hospitals. Quarterly reviews of transported infants are held at individual regional referral hospitals. 

Maternal Newborn Transport Reviews of transported infants are held at individual regional referral hospitals. For more information please contact Peighton Terrill, BSN, RN, Neonatal Perinatal Outreach Program Manager at (757) 668-9140 or e-mail  Peighton.Terrill@CHKD.org.

Mom holding a baby in the NICU at CHKD

Lactation Support for Hospitalized Moms

Give Your Baby the Best Possible Start in Life

Your body has been getting ready to feed your baby throughout your pregnancy. Human milk is specially made for your baby. Consider the first few weeks a learning period for you and your baby. Give yourself time to recuperate from birth. With time and practice, you will become a coordinated team. CHKD Lactation is available in the NICU to assist you
with getting started.

Close up of a baby in our NICU with wires and pumps.

The King's Daughters Milk Bank

The King’s Daughters Milk Bank at CHKD is a nonprofit, hospital-based donor milk bank established to provide the life-saving benefits of breast milk to severely premature and critically-ill infants, improving their potential to survive and thrive.

Neuro-NICU

CHKD’s Neuro-NICU team provides highly specialized intensive care to newborns born with or at risk of neurological conditions. This collaboration between the region’s top neonatologists, pediatric neurologists and developmental experts nurtures optimal brain development in newborns with a variety of conditions that could affect their neurological development.

Take a look inside and learn more about the newly renovated NICU at CHKD.

See a slideshow of NICU staff members moving the hospital's smallest patients to CHKD's newly renovated NICU.