The Mother and Child units at Lakeshore General Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital Center and the Hôpital de LaSalle’s birth unit—Unité familiale des naissances (UFN) have a neonatal unit that accommodates newborns who need special supervision and care.
Your presence with your child is important and you will be encouraged to be close to your child. Depending on the clinical situation, you will be encouraged to skin-to-skin and breastfeed your baby.
You will be able to express your milk and the team will make sure to save it for feeding your baby in your absence.
The neonatal unit at Lakeshore General Hospital and Hôpital de LaSalle can offer you an accommodation room depending on the availability of rooms on the unit, while St. Mary's Hospital Center has a two-bed accommodation room.
The neonatal unit can assist newborns who:
- Are born at 34 weeks of pregnancy or more (32 weeks for Hôpital de LaSalle)
- Have a low birth weight
- Have respiratory problems requiring assistance (Hôpital de LaSalle)
- Have a health problem that does not require surgery and that should resolve quickly
- Need intravenous fluids and/or medication
- Were resuscitated at birth but have stabilized
- Are returning from a tertiary center and need to gain weight