The Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Training Program within the Division of Neonatology at B.C. Children’s and Women’s Hospital is accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada*.

The Division of Neonatology is responsible for supporting a busy clinical service covering a broad spectrum of perinatal problems. In addition, the Division has a major commitment to teaching and research. B.C. Women’s Hospital is a tertiary care perinatal centre and B.C. Children’s Hospital is a quaternary referral centre.

Family-centered care is emphasized throughout our Perinatal Program. All delivery rooms are capable of caring for a mother throughout labour, delivery and the early post-partum period. Operating rooms are located in the Delivery Suite. Anaesthetic services to labouring mothers are handled specifically by full-time obstetrical anaesthetists. The Antepartum Program is heavily utilized on both an inpatient and outpatient basis and teaching antenatal consultation skills is an active part of our Program.

British Columbia has approximately 46,000 births a year with 7,000 delivers occurring in the Delivery Suite (30% being high-risk) at B.C. Women’s Hospital.

700 infants are admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) each year. Approximately 30% are less than 32 weeks gestation and approximately 200 are less than 1500 grams. The 60 bed NICU accommodates intensive, intermediate and grower/convalescent preterm and full-term infants.

The Program provides a diverse and complex tertiary care patient population, employing a variety of invasive (conventional, HFOV, JET) and non-invasive ventilatory modalities. There are medical and surgical patients and exposure to neonatal patients requiring ECLS in the PICU. We are unique in having a Complex Care Team managing long-term issues such as Tracheostomy.

The Division of Neonatology is responsible for supporting a High-Risk Resuscitation Team and the Provincial Infant Transport Program and 62% of all admissions are admitted directly from the Delivery Suites located adjacent to the NICU. The Infant Transport Team transports approximately 300 infants per year to and from the NICU with approximately 150 acute transports and approximately 500 reverse transports. Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Subspecialty Residents/Clinical Fellows participate in the transport of acutely ill neonates.

The Training Program includes Neonatal Follow-up Clinic and Maternal Fetal Medicine rotations, as well as a variety of electives. There is some training in Targeted Neonatal Echocardiography (TnECHO).

Academically, the Division of Neonatology is actively involved in undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education programs. Subspecialty Residents/Clinical Fellows are involved in teaching fourth year medical students, as well as the Pediatric Residents who rotate through the NICU. There is active outreach programs with courses such as NRP (Neonatal Resuscitation Program) and ACoRN (Acute Care of at-Risk Newborns) Program. The Program also provides opportunities for trainees to become NRP and ACoRN instructors.

In a subspecialty where there are so many potential opportunities to prevent or reduce the incidence of permanent disabilities, evaluation of care and research play a crucial role. Members of the Division are involved in a wide variety of research, including: Bioethics, Epidemiology, Follow-Up & Neonatal Development, Immunology, Infectious Diseases, Medical Education, Neurology, Nutrition, Pharmacology, Quality Improvement, Simulation, and Targeted Neonatal Echocardiography.