Baby Steps
Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) Special Care Unit
Thomas Health Baby STEPS Program is a Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) Special Care Unit, specifically designed for the appropriate care of the NAS population babies and their families. The Special Care Unit serves as a sensitive and therapeutic environment that encourages and supports visitation from the children’s families.
Baby STEPS stands for sensitive treatment, education and parental support. As the first of its kind in our region, the unit provides the opportunity for Thomas Health’s specially trained healthcare staff to provide much-needed care for some of the most vulnerable patients that visit the hospital.
Prior to the program’s opening, babies recovering from NAS took up 60 percent of the beds in the hospital’s special care nursery. On average Thomas Memorial delivers between 900 and 1,100 babies each year, about 13 percent of which have NAS.
This Special Care Unit relieves the Neonatal ICU unit of overcrowding and offers a variety of services to NAS population babies and their families seeking ongoing support, resources, teaching, referrals and discharge planning. Thanks to generous donations from the Foundation for Thomas Health, these children will get the best chance for a healthy start.
