Vökudeild is a neonatal and infant intensive care unit. It is the only unit of its kind in Iceland and therefore serves the whole country.

The NICU tends to:

• all newborn babies requiring special monitoring and treatment in the first few weeks of their lives

• children requiring intensive care treatment up to the age of three months

Preterm infants make up 40% of the patients at the NICU, which is children born before 37 weeks of pregnancy.

Team

There is a multidisciplinary team working at the NICU that is responsible for the follow-up of very premature births, that is children born before the 32nd week of pregnancy and/or those born less than 1500 grams.

This means that all children in this risk group are invited to come to inspections and tests at regular intervals during the first years. The monitoring includes monitoring of the child's health and development at a certain age. When discharged from the NICU, families are referred to the team at the outpatient ward at the Children's Hospital.