Newborn Conditions

El Camino Health’s neonatologists — doctors who specialize in caring for babies with complex health problems — work closely with other mother-baby care clinicians to diagnose, treat and provide ongoing care for newborns in the NICU. It’s difficult and stressful when your baby has medical issues, so our NICU staff makes sure you’re well-informed about your baby’s condition and treatment.

Our professionals make a special effort to be available to answer your questions and provide support and assistance throughout your baby’s treatment and recovery.

Expert Care for Newborns

Our neonatal specialists provide care for a variety of conditions, including:

• Conditions that commonly affect premature babies — babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy — such as anemia, breathing problems (apnea, respiratory distress syndrome and others) and bradycardia (a very slow heartbeat).
• Congenital heart defects, including problems with heart valves and blood flow through the heart.
• Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
• Infections, such as sepsis and pneumonia.
• Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), which causes your baby to grow more slowly than usual in utero.
• Jaundice and hyperbilirubinemia.

El Camino Health's NICU care team uses advanced medical equipment to monitor your baby’s body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. Treatment often includes mechanical ventilators and CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines to help with breathing, incubators or warmers to control body temperature, and intravenous feeding.

Our neonatal care professionals are focused on delivering the highest level of care to newborns, using some of the latest neonatal care technology and therapies.