Our Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Overlake Medical Center’s Level III NICU on the Eastside has the expertise to handle any specialized care your baby may need – in a warm, family-like setting.

If your baby arrives early or needs extra care after birth, our Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is equipped with the most advanced technology and a dedicated team of experts who are specially trained to care for premature babies and newborns with complex medical needs.

We pride ourselves on being able to care for all types of newborns, whether they need a few days or several months of specialized care. Our tight-knit team does everything we can to treat you like family and make sure you feel included, heard and well-prepared to take your baby home.

Our goal is always to get your baby in your arms – and home as quickly and safely as possible. 

Highly-skilled Newborn Specialists Providing 24/7 Care

If your baby needs extra care, you can trust that our NICU team can provide it.

While in our NICU, your baby will be cared for 24/7 by a specialized team of neonatologists. Neonatologists are doctors who are specially trained to care for the unique needs of newborn babies.

Depending on your baby’s needs, our neonatologists may work with other specialists who also have special training in the care of tiny, fragile babies. These specialists include: 

• Respiratory therapists, who help with any breathing issues.
• Speech therapists, who help with feeding and developing a baby’s sucking and swallowing skills.
• Dieticians, who can help make sure your baby is getting enough of the right vitamins and nutrients.
• Registered Nurses, specially trained to provide care in the NICU.
• Breastfeeding experts who provide NICU-specific lactation support.
• Pharmacists, who make sure the medications your baby is taking are safe for their tiny body.
• Social workers, who visit regularly to provide your entire family with logistical and emotional support. 

Our collaborative team of NICU specialists love their jobs and the culture of outstanding care we’ve built together. We’re proud of our low infection and complication rates and our exceptionally high patient satisfaction.

Ninety-nine percent of families who need our NICU care feel heard by our staff and report getting plenty of practice caring for their babies – so they feel prepared to go home. 

Building Trust and Helping You Bond with Your Baby

While your baby may need around-the-clock medical attention, we also do everything we can to help you bond with your baby and learn to care for them. We offer: 

• Quiet, calm, private rooms. Being able to help care for your baby in a quiet, calm, private room can be much less stressful than having your baby in a large NICU room with other babies and loud medical equipment. It can also promote important parent-child bonding and precious skin-to-skin time. And when our NICU is full, we also have semi-private “overflow” rooms.
• Predictable, daily rounds and updates. Every morning, at around 9:30 a.m., our full team will come to your baby’s bedside to give you a report on their progress, teach you anything you might need to know to help care for them and check in on your own well-being. If you miss these morning “rounds,” we’re happy to give you a call with the daily report – or catch you in the evening, when a smaller team does evening rounds. 

A Welcoming, Family-like Atmosphere

The stress of having a baby in the NICU can be a lot. So we do everything we can to reduce that stress and help you and your family maintain some sense of normalcy.

Some of the ways we do that include:

• Photography. We offer photos of your baby and your family through Bella Baby Photography.
• Holiday celebrations. From Halloween costumes made with love by our nurses to visits from Santa, we never miss a chance to have fun and celebrate with you and your family.
• Baby Bookworm Project. We provide one book a month to each baby in our NICU – to support early reading and developmental care.
• Free meals for moms. Remembering to take care of yourself can be a challenge, so we’re here to provide you with a nutritious lunch each and every day – so you have one less meal to think about.
• A gathering space to relax and connect. Our private rooms give you a chance to rest and bond with your baby. But we also provide a chance to connect with other families who have a baby in the NICU, or just chill out and watch TV – in our parent respite rooms.

Feeding Specialists, Lactation Support and Donor Milk

When your baby is in the NICU, every ounce of weight gain counts as a win. Our dedicated NICU dieticians will monitor your baby every day – to make sure they’re getting all the nutrition they need for their growth and development.  

And because we know that breast milk is like medicine for newborn babies, we do everything we can to make sure your baby receives all the benefits of breast milk. Breast milk provides many essential nutrients and is very gentle on a newborn's delicate digestive system. It also helps babies build up their immune systems and ward off infections, which is especially important for premature or medically fragile babies.

If you want to breastfeed, our dedicated NICU lactation consultants are here to support you in every way possible. We’ll help you learn breastfeeding tips and establish a pumping routine – if you need to keep up your milk supply until your baby is ready to feed at your breast. Simultaneously, our speech therapists will work with your baby to help them develop the swallowing and sucking muscles they need to breastfeed.

If providing your own breast milk is not feasible, we have donor breast milk to help fill the gap until your milk supply is established or your baby is ready to have formula. Donor milk is a limited resource, so we use it based on medical need and use specific protocols to ensure our highest-risk babies receive it. This donor milk has been fully screened and pasteurized, so you can trust that it’s 100% safe.  

We also offer many other resources for breastfeeding support – before and after birth.