Sofia spent the first 12 weeks of her life in the NICU
Neonatology (also known as neonatal-perinatal medicine) is a medical sub-specialty of pediatrics that consists of the medical care of newborn infants, especially the ill or premature newborn infants. It is a hospital-based specialty, and is usually practiced in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Medical practitioners of neonatology are called neonatologists, and their principal patients are newborn infants who are ill or requiring special medical care due to prematurity, low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation, congenital malformations (birth defects), sepsis, pulmonary hyperplasia or birth asphyxias.
In addition to the NICU-team, neonatologists often work with perinatologists, pediatric surgeons, neonatal surgeons, and fetal surgeons.
Neonatology is the non-surgical counterpart to neonatal surgery.
Notable Neonatologists[]
- Dr. Vanessa Hoyt (Perinatologist and Neonatologist at St. Ambrose Hospital)
Notes and Trivia[]
- Dr. Jake Reilly, although incorrect, referenced Addison as a neonatologist to a patient.
- While working at Seattle Grace Hospital, Addison's badge showed her departments as OB/GYN and Neonatology, although incorrect as she is a neonatal surgeon.