When Allison Possick went into labor, she didn’t think she would need any extraordinary care. She had already given birth to two healthy children with no complications, but when her newborn needed care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), she was overjoyed to be at BayCare’s Morton Plant Hospital, which just opened its new NICU couplet care room.
BayCare delivers more babies than any other hospital system in West Central Florida and is known for providing the highest clinical excellence with extraordinary compassionate care. That reputation is strengthened by BayCare’s ongoing commitment to innovation in care delivery, including couplet care.
NICU couplet care allows a mother and baby, as patients, to stay together in the same room even when the baby needs specialized care.
“We are excited to be one of the first in our state to offer couplet care for NICU families,” said Whitney Eldridge, MD, Morton Plant Hospital’s NICU medical director and physician champion for couplet care. “There is compelling evidence that this model can greatly reduce parental stress and promote exclusive breastfeeding.”
No one needs to convince the Possick family, the first patients admitted to the couplet care room. “It didn’t feel like I was in the NICU,” Possick said. “It wasn’t scary, and it was much less traumatic than if my baby had been away from me.”
Parents can always be in the NICU with their baby, but postpartum moms often need to stay in their post-delivery room to receive the care needed to be safely discharged. With couplet care, the baby receives NICU care while the mother receives postpartum care in a room together, avoiding separation.
Morton Plant Hospital converted a labor and delivery room into the NICU couplet room. The room, which is on the same floor and nearby to the NICU, was already large enough to host two patients and visiting family. Advanced equipment was brought in to make the transformation.
“Those rooms are already equipped to provide routine medical care for moms and babies, so our upgrades to accommodate intensive care for the baby were adding wireless, infant cardiac monitoring equipment to transmit vital information directly to the NICU centralized monitoring,” explained Brenda Carvalho, director of patient services – women’s services at Morton Plant and Mease Countryside hospitals. “We are grateful for the Morton Plant Mease Health Care Foundation who gave us $79,000 to make it possible.”
BayCare’s Women’s Services team have been working for more than a year to bring couplet care to families in the area.
“Most families will not need the couplet room, but when someone does, we are equipped to provide this service to our patients,” Carvalho added.
Possick cannot say enough about the care she and her new baby received.
“Every single NICU nurse and doctor was next level and truly amazing,” she enthusiastically stated. “In this traumatic time, it was so nice to be with the NICU nurses. I learned so much from them, and I have two other children.”
BayCare’s St. Joseph’s Hospital-North in Lutz features two NICU couplet rooms in its new 5,431-square-foot, eight-bed NICU, which opened July 15.
BayCare also has NICUs at St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital in Tampa, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South in Riverview, Mease Countryside Hospital in Safety Harbor and Winter Haven Women’s Hospital in Winter Haven. South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City is set to open its NICU later this year, completing BayCare’s strategy to provide NICUs at all delivering hospitals. This strategy is already included in the design of BayCare’s newest hospital in Manatee County to open in 2028.
For more information on BayCare’s maternity services, visit BayCare Babies.
