Getty Images: J.D. Pooley
CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital has opened a Special Delivery Unit on the Cleveland Clinic's main campus for patients whose pregnancies are complicated by serious, life-threatening maternal or fetal conditions.
While many hospitals have units that cater to at-risk infants, the SDU at Cleveland Clinic is the first unit of its kind built to accommodate pregnant women in extremely critical condition as well as their newborns.
The SDU brings a multidisciplinary team of maternal-fetal medicine specialists, neonatologists, geneticists and pediatric surgery specialists into one setting that offers coordinated care for both mother and baby.
Housing the SDU on the Clinic's main campus also means pregnant women have access to a full spectrum of adult medical and surgical acute care specialists.
Moms-to-be with serious conditions such as lung cancer, heart failure, brain tumors or other serious illnesses are among the patients most likely to need services in the SDU, as well as those who develop critical health issues during their pregnancies that put their baby's health at risk.
A collaboration between Cleveland Clinic's Children's Hospital and OB/GYN & Women's Health Institute, the SDU includes a delivery room, an operating room for emergency and planned Cesarean sections, and an adjoining Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Lab.
Close proximity to a Level III NICU enables immediate lifesaving intervention to resuscitate and stabilize newborns with life-threatening conditions.
The SDU medical team is a cross-collaboration of sub-specialists from throughout the Cleveland Clinic health system and is tailored to each patient's specific condition.
The team offers patients support from initial consultation through delivery and the postpartum period, all while coordinating care for mom and baby.
The unit is meant for the sickest of the sick and for moms with the most unique and complex conditions that require care from a number of specialists in order to have a successful delivery and healthy baby.
The services provided at the SDU will complement the Clinic's two primary hospitals Hillcrest and Fairview, for deliveries. These hospitals also have Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Units which provide the highest level of care for newborns.
Fairview and Hillcrest hospitals delivered over 8,500 babies in 2011, with Cleveland Clinic hospitals delivering over 11,000 babies system wide, the most in Ohio.
Part of Cleveland Clinic's Fetal Care Center, the SDU provides moms, unborn babies and newborns with advanced diagnostic and treatment options, from fetal MRI and in utero intervention to immediate newborn surgery.
A full spectrum of subspecialty care is available to moms with serious diseases that may complicate labor and delivery.
For more information, visit the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital website or call (216) 444-9706.
WKYC-TV