NICU

Research has shown that added distance between a patient and obstetric care increases the likelihood the baby will be admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.

In recent years, more hospitals have trained volunteers to provide this service in the NICU, a nursery where specialists offer 24/7 care to at-risk newborns until their health stabilizes.

Yet, there are no current methods to continuously monitor airflow at the bedside and to accurately distinguish apnea subtypes, especially in these most vulnerable infants in the clinical NICU.

“They want to work in the ER, they want to work in the hospital, they want to work in the NICU, or somewhere where they can have that adrenaline,” Bobbitt said.

She was admitted, and spent weeks there recovering while her daughter was across town in another hospital’s NICU.