British Columbia's Women's Hospital is the only facility in BC solely dedicated to the health of women, newborns, and families. With over 7000 births every year, Women's Hospital is one of the busiest and largest obstetrical centers in Canada. BC Women's provides the highest level of care to pregnant woman and is the only source of tertiary maternity care in the province.

BC Women's provides a broad range of specialized health services that address the health needs of women of all ages and backgrounds. These include world-class reproductive health, substance dependency, and care of women and children with HIV/Aids. The acute perinatal programs at BC Women's include High Risk Antepartum, the Birthing Program, and High Risk Postpartum.

Key functions for all of the programs are assessment, monitoring, consultation, teaching, research, and evidenced based care. All aspects of care are interdisciplinary involving health care providers from medicine, nursing, social work, respiratory therapy, physiotherapy/occupational therapy, and other allied health professionals.

At Women's Hospital there is a Vice-President for all of the Acute perinatal Programs, a manager for the High Risk Antepartum/ Postpartum Programs, and a manager for the Birthing Program. Additionally, there are four Program Coordinators and five Perinatal Clinical Educators for the Birthing Program, and four coordinators and four educators for the Antepartum/ Postpartum Programs.

In order to support the professional development of all staff, an extensive education program is in place. Hospital based courses, workshops and in-services are available along with the opportunity to be funded to take advanced practice certificates through the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

The birthing program includes the Triage/Assessment area, Labor and Delivery unit for low and high risk mothers/babies, Single Room Maternity Care rooms, and a Surgical Suite for cesarean births, and gynecological procedures. We also have nurses skilled in the care of critical care obstetric patients, and a maternal transport team that assists in the preparation and safe transfer of the high-risk woman.

The triage area has 6 beds. Approximately 11,000 patients are seen in the triage area each year.

The delivery suite is a 13 bed inpatient unit for the care of low and high-risk obstetrical patients. Located within the unit is a resuscitation room for immediate care and stabilization of the high risk newborn. Care providers include nursing, medical students, obstetrical residents, obstetricians, perinatologists, anesthesia, family practice doctors and midwives. Other specialized services are also available such as, endocrinology, and internal medicine.

The single room maternity care unit consists of 17 inpatient beds for the care of low risk laboring and postpartum woman.

The surgical suite consists of a four bed surgical daycare admission area, four operating rooms, a four bed surgical daycare recovery room, and a six bed recovery room. Booked and emergent cesarean sections are done in the surgical suite along with gynecological day surgery.

B.C. Women's offers specialized care for women throughout BC whose pregnancies are at risk of a poor outcome. Approximately 2000 pregnant women are admitted to the antepartum unit each year. Care is provided for women requiring fetal surveillance due to fetal condition, management of obstetrical complications of pregnancy such as preterm labour, preterm, premature rupture of membranes and hypertension in pregnancy as well as medical-surgical complications such as chronic pain, cardiac/lung conditions and the physically challenged patient. Inclusive care is provided to women experiencing a loss due to genetic abnormalities.

The High Risk Antepartum unit consists of 15 inpatient beds for women with pregnancy complications staffed by experienced nurses working in teams of four.

This program allows women with specific pregnancy complications to remain at home with assessment, care and teaching provided by our visiting nurses.

The 12 bed Fir Square Combined Care Unit program of BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre is the first in Canada to care for substance-using women and substance-exposed newborns in a single unit. The program helps women and their newborns stabilize and withdraw from substances, keeping mothers and babies together whenever possible and continuing to provide care from antepartum to postpartum and between hospital and community. Women at Fir Square have access to counseling and instruction to enhance critical life skills, parenting techniques, and coping mechanisms. Babies receive specialized care that meets their needs if withdrawing from prenatal substance exposure to ensure the healthiest possible start.

Our postpartum services support woman and their newborns, utilizing a family-centered approach through all phases of in- hospital postpartum care. We have 47 postpartum beds for our moderate to high risk mothers after delivery. Healthy infants are cared for in the same room with their mothers, with the emphasis on baby-care education and feeding support. We discharge most women twelve to twenty-four hours after giving birth vaginally, and 48 hours after giving birth by Cesarean Section. Follow up care and support after discharge is provided by the Vancouver/Richmond Healthy Beginnings Program.

We provide leadership in Maternal and Newborn Care in B.C. by participating in a variety of research activities. As a nurse, you may be approached to be involved in some of these important studies.

The Neonatal Program at BC Women's Health Centre of British Columbia includes the Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the Level II Intermediate Nursery (IN), the Neonatal Follow-Up Program, and the Division of Neonatology (University of British Columbia Department of Pediatrics). The Program maintains leadership within the province of British Columbia, meeting regularly with other Level II and III nurseries. In conjunction with the leading Obstetric program at the BC Women's Hospital (BCWH), it provides comprehensive Level III and II perinatal services to British Columbia including direct patient care, consultation, triage, and transport. With over 7,000 babies born each year, BCWH is one of the country's busiest obstetrical centers and British Columbia's major provider of both tertiary maternity and tertiary neonatal care. There are approximately 1,600 combined admissions annually to the NICU and IN. Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is provided in a joint neonatal/pediatric program with the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Cardiac Sciences Program.

Key functions include assessment, consultation, high-risk resuscitation services, triage, transport, quaternary, tertiary care for infants and their families, follow-up outpatient services, teaching, outreach and research. All aspects of care are interdisciplinary involving health care providers from medicine, nursing, social work, respiratory, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, and many other allied health professionals.

In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)/ Intermediate Nursery (IN) there is 1 Program Director, 1 Program Coordinator, 3 Nurse Educators, 1 Discharge Planning and Family Education Coordinator, 1 Equipment and Supply Coordinator, and 9 Clinical Nurse Leaders (CNLs). The nursing staff in both nurseries is distributed amongst 9 teams that are each led by one of the CNLs. In addition there is a committee structure in which there are opportunities for staff nurses to become members as part of the representation of the interdisciplinary team.

The NICU is a 47-bed inpatient Level III NICU. It is a medical and surgical unit and includes a high-risk resuscitation team for the Birthing Program and Postpartum/Antepartum Program and in the BC Women's Hospital. Approximately 70 % of infants are inborn from the BC Women's Hospital Birthing Program and 30 % are out born, transported by our Infant Transport Team (ITT) from hospitals around the province.

This is a 10-bed Level II nursery located within the NICU footprint which provides care for premature infants born at a later stage of gestation than those in the NICU as well as term infants requiring a lesser degree of intensive care, but still needing specialized care.

This interdisciplinary outpatient clinic provides follow-up care for a specific population of graduates from the NICU and their families, working collaboratively with the community, region and province in servicing the needs of children and families. The results of outcome studies from this service have led to evidence-based practice changes and attitudes, especially of the extremely low-birth weight infant.

This program is fundamental to the delivery of the regionalized perinatal care in the province of British Columbia. The ITT transports acutely ill infants, children, and mothers from referral to receiving hospitals. Unlike other provinces in Canada and many other countries, this team is not a nurse transport team but consists of specially-trained emergency medical assistants from the BC Ambulance Service (BCAS), and works collaboratively with BCAS and Maternal and Pediatric programs at Children's and Women's (C&W).

This is a joint program between the Neonatal Program, Critical Care Program, and the Cardiac Sciences Program (BCCH site), which provides service to both neonatal and pediatric patients.

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