The UNC Center for Maternal and Infant Health provides special, personalized care for families with complicated pregnancies, and babies with serious medical problems. The Center provides mothers and babies with the best treatment available from some of the very best doctors in their fields. Care coordinators are responsible for helping families through the challenges from diagnosis through discharge and beyond. Coordinators help buffer families from the added worries and difficulties that may come with receiving complex care in a new, unfamiliar place.
Our care coordinators:
- Are available to answer questions and concerns.
- Schedule and coordinate appointments with the health care providers.
- Help insure that families understand their medical condition and/or their baby’s medical condition and treatment plan.
- Make sure that referring doctors and community provider are informed and can participate in care.
- Provide families with support and refer them to needed resources.
- Assist families of babies with complex conditions as they transition home and complete their treatment plan.
The Center uses a personalized approach to care that meets your needs. At the University of North Carolina (UNC), our doctors have the knowledge, skills and compassion to provide the best care possible. Our Center brings together all of their expertise and focuses it on mothers’ and babies’ special medical needs.
The Center’s team holds a care conference to make individualized plans for how they can work together to provide the best possible outcome. All of the experts who serve the mother/baby pair participate in the conference. The Center’s team includes neonatologists, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, surgeons, nurses, social workers, geneticists, and a chaplain.
If you think you need perinatal care coordination services, please talk with your health care provider. The Center accepts referrals through the UNC Ultrasound Department as well as through the Newborn Critical Care Center or other pediatric specialists.
Every Monday afternoon at 4pm, the Center for Maternal and Infant Health’s partners come together to develop (and sometimes revise) treatment plans for new patients, report the health status of patients following a birth, and review their status upon discharge. The team also uses this time for continuing their education as they discuss best practice in perinatal health. Specialists also share information about new medical procedures and treatments, set new protocols when needed, discuss ethical issues if they arise, and learn from each other across disciplines. The development of a single, unified plan for a patient and family is a unique service that is available to patients who are part of the Center for Maternal and Infant Health.
