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Maternal Special Care Unit
Pregnancy is a natural part of life. But for women with serious health problems, the stress of childbirth can be life threatening. That’s why Hutzel Women’s Hospital created the Maternal Special Care Unit – Michigan’s only intensive care unit for pregnant women.
“In other hospitals, a critically ill pregnant woman would go into an ICU setting and the medical or surgical ICU physicians would take care of her. But they probably wouldn’t have a specialized understanding of critical care during pregnancy,” said Jerrie S. Refuerzo, M.D., director of the Maternal Special Care Unit at Hutzel Women’s Hospital. “Here, our Maternal Special Care Unit is staffed by obstetricians, maternal fetal medicine specialists and perinatologists – physicians who really understand all the physiological changes that occur during pregnancy.”
This specialized expertise makes Hutzel Women’s Hospital a referral center for pregnant women with the most serious health problems. Physicians from throughout southeast Michigan refer their high-risk patients to Hutzel.
“Our expectations may be different than the expectations of an intensivist in a more traditional ICU setting,” Dr. Refuerzo said. “With our understanding of high-risk pregnancy, we’ll have different expectations for how well a mom should be doing, what her prognosis is and how we should be managing her care.”
The five-bed Maternal Special Care Unit at Hutzel Women’s Hospital is a destination for acutely ill pregnant women with a wide variety of medical conditions. Dr. Refuerzo and her team provide 24-hour-a-day, critical care to pregnant women with the following conditions:
- Pulmonary embolisms
- Severe pneumonia
- Severe asthma
- Stroke
- Congestive Heart Failure
- Cardiovascular disease
- High blood pressure
- Severe diabetes
- Hypoxia (low oxygen levels in blood)
“Providing care for these women during childbirth can be extremely difficult,” Dr. Refuerzo said. “A lot of changes can occur in the mom’s heart rate and blood pressure. These need to be monitored very carefully. Changes in the heart and blood pressure can not only affect the mom’s status, but also the status of the fetus as well.”
The Maternal Special Care Unit combines the technologies typically available in a Labor and Delivery Unit and an Intensive Care Unit – enabling physicians to monitor the heart rate and blood pressure of both mother and baby.
The Maternal Special Care Unit is close to a surgical suite, so emergency surgery – including emergency C-sections – can be performed quickly if needed. The unit is also very close to the pediatric specialists at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.
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