question

I just found this message board for the NICU so you'll have to forgive me for writing two posts in one day! I'm just so excited I found it!

My question about the NICU is if you had to estimate, what percentage would you say of infants pass away in the NICU? I hope that doesn't sound too morbid, but my school doesn't do a NICU, peds or L&D clinical rotation.

I worked as an extern in L&D this past summer, and I was amazed at how many fetal demises I saw. So sad! Before I did my externship, I thought labor and delivery was a completely "happy" area of nursing where you don't have to/very rarely dealt with death. Well I was wrong! Also being able to see how tiny some of those 24weekers were I just always wondered if they usually survive.

I must say the saddest part of working in labor and delivery was seeing the babies who were born at 22 weeks, where you just basically have to watch them die right in front of you and not able to do a thing. It's such a helpless feeling.

I realize that death is a part of life and as a soon-to-be nurse I can't avoid it. But I'm just curious. I'm also aware that the number will be affected by what level the NICU is.

Thanks!

When i started NICU in 1990, my manager told me about 80% of the babies survive...not sure if that remains the same today, but still sounds about right.

It very, very much depends on the NICU. Ours is a lvl IV; there's nothing we don't do except lung transplants. So our mortality rate is going to be higher than a level II, or even a level III that doesn't do cardiacs or ECMO. We've had a bad month; I think we lost upwards of five babies? But sometimes we go a long time without one. So it really depends.

I know it's low for us and we're a level III. It surprises people when I tell them we lose very few pts. I did more PM care in a month of adults than a year of NICU.