Neuro-Intensive Care Nursery (NICN)

Our neuro-intensive care nursery

Critically ill infants born with a neurological condition, as well as newborns at risk for these disorders, receive attentive, personalized, 24/7 care.

We provide treatments and closely monitor your baby's brain using leading technologies and minimally invasive techniques when possible.

Your baby receives care from a team of specialists, including:

• Neonatologists

• Pediatric neurologists

• Pediatric neurosurgeons

• Pediatric epileptologists (epilepsy and seizure experts)

• Pediatric neuroradiologists (brain imaging experts)

• Neonatal neuro-care trained nurses

Advanced brain imaging and monitoring

We use the latest diagnostic technologies to assess and monitor your child's brain. These detailed studies help us understand the structure, function and oxygen level in their brain.

Conditions we may diagnose using brain imaging and monitoring include:

• Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)

• Seizures (including neonatal onset epilepsies)

• Stroke

• Brain injuries related to prematurity (intraventricular hemorrhage, white matter injury)

• Vascular malformations

• Central nervous system malformations, including myelomeningoceles

Depending on your newborn's health history, symptoms and age, we may recommend brain imaging and monitoring. These tests help us understand your baby's brain development, detect seizures and other problems quickly, and see how the brain is responding to treatment:

• Neonatal MRI creates detailed images of your baby's brain.

• Continuous video EEG records electrical brain activity and detects seizures.

• Bedside aEEG measures your baby's brain activity at their bedside.

• Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) monitors oxygen levels in your baby's brain.

Therapies and developmental care

Your baby has access to a full range of neurologic treatments. Our highly specialized team collaborates to recommend the best therapies to help their brain heal.

Your child may receive physical, occupational and speech-language therapy during their stay. These supportive services help improve feeding skills and promote neurodevelopment.

Pediatric neurosurgery

If your baby needs surgery, our experienced pediatric neurosurgeons use a minimally invasive approach, when possible, which often leads to a faster recovery. We discuss your baby's procedure with you and answer your questions.

Therapeutic hypothermia (cooling therapy)

Babies who didn't get enough oxygen to their brain during birth, also known as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), may receive therapeutic hypothermia. This therapy lowers their body temperature to help limit brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen.

We may also use cooling therapy to treat babies receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), an advanced treatment that takes over the work of the heart and lungs. We're one of the few programs in California offering ECMO for newborns.

Developmental support

Your baby receives rehabilitation through our therapeutic programs to improve their brain function and well-being. As your baby gains strength, we track their neurologic development to identify and address problems as early as possible.

This developmental support continues after your child leaves. If needed, specialists from our neonatal neurology follow-up program and infant follow-up program will follow your child's development.

Pioneering neonatal neurological research

Our team works to improve the lives of children born with neurological conditions through innovative studies and research initiatives. We may ask if you want to enroll your child in a clinical trial to help us improve outcomes for babies born with brain conditions.

Authoring Notes

Preprod-only checklist. Remove this component before promoting to prod.

Content source URLs (1)

• https://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/clinics/neuro-intensive-care-nursery

Warnings (5)

• media-feature card 'Fetal Neurology Center of Excellence' targets a migrated page; emitted as a Related Services grid card instead
• Care keyword 'neonatal neurointensive care' not found under /sitecore/content/UCSFWEB/Shared/Base/Data/Clinical Tag Library/Clinical Keywords — add an entry to clinical_keyword_aliases.json if the Sitecore item is named differently.
• Care keyword 'neuro-intensive care nursery' not found under /sitecore/content/UCSFWEB/Shared/Base/Data/Clinical Tag Library/Clinical Keywords — add an entry to clinical_keyword_aliases.json if the Sitecore item is named differently.
• Care keyword 'newborn brain care' not found under /sitecore/content/UCSFWEB/Shared/Base/Data/Clinical Tag Library/Clinical Keywords — add an entry to clinical_keyword_aliases.json if the Sitecore item is named differently.
• Legacy care keyword(s) matched no Clinical Keyword: Neonatal epilepsy, Neonatal seizures - add an entry to scripts/care_keyword_aliases.json.

Word doc notes (11)

Lauren Lamb · 2025-08-19T12:24:00Z
Anchored to: “Meta and tags”

Primary keyword:
neuro-intensive care nursery

Secondary keywords: neonatal neurointensive care, therapeutic hypothermia, newborn brain care

Morgan Redding · 2026-07-21T11:07:00Z
Anchored to: “marketing use”

UCSF PROD: Please link to the Fetal Treatment Center and Fetal Neurology Center of Excellence in the Related Services component.

Morgan Redding · 2026-07-21T15:11:00Z
Anchored to: “This therapy lowers their body temperature to help limit brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen”

UCSF: Source – https://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/conditions/neonatal-hypoxic-ischemic-encephalopathy

Morgan Redding · 2026-07-21T16:23:00Z
Anchored to: “tags (for”

UCSF PROD: SME provided a list of team members who should be on the page.

Core NICN team

Hannah C. Glass, MDCM, MAS

Neonatal neurologist, Director Neonatal Neurocritical Care Services, BCH-SF

Mark Petersen, MD

Neonatologist, Director NICN

Natalie Chan, MD

Neonatologist, Associate Director NICN

Marisa Gardiner, MD

Pediatric Neurologist, BCH-OAK

Bridget Ostrem, MD

Fetal and Neonatal Neurologist

Adam Numis, MD

Pediatric Neurophysiologist

Yi Li, MD

Pediatric Neuroradiologist

Donna Ferriero, MD

Neonatal Neurologist

Sharon Weitstock, MD

Pediatric Neurohospitalist

Rachel Vassar, MD

Pediatric Neurologist, Specialist in neurovascular care

Alexander Fay, MD

Pediatric Neuromuscular Neurologist

William Weiss, MD, PhD

Pediatric Neurologist

Fernando Gonzales, MD

Neonatologist

Pediatric neurosurgeons

Nalin Gupta, MD, PhD

Winston Ho

Kurtis Auguste

Peter Sun

Morgan Redding · 2026-07-21T16:48:00Z
Anchored to: “Neonatal Neurology and Neurocritical Care Program”

UCSF: Source – Document provided by Dr. Glass

Gila Rose · 2026-08-09T09:59:00Z
Anchored to: “Fetal Neurology Center of Excellence”

UCSF: Called out as a "special program" on the source page

Pratz, Valerie · 2026-08-28T18:14:00Z
Anchored to: “NIH Funding Neurology and Neurosurgery”

Explain benefit

Lauren Lamb · 2026-09-01T13:57:00Z
Anchored to: “NIH Funding Neurology and Neurosurgery”

Valerie - We can’t change this content as it is from the pre-approved Benioff Extract Accolades sheet.

Pratz, Valerie · 2026-08-28T18:35:00Z
Anchored to: “characters”

Include the titles for all of these

Lauren Lamb · 2026-09-01T13:55:00Z
Anchored to: “characters”

Titles will be automatically pulled in.

McGrath, Timothy · 2026-10-13T10:27:00Z
Anchored to: “characters”

Keep in Related Content Grid, thanks.

Lauren Lamb · 2026-09-10T08:32:00Z
Anchored to: “Dr. Hannah Glass”

9/9/26 Email from Dr. Glass: I made some small edits and am now cc'ing my co-Director Dr. Mark Petersen for his input.

Petersen, Mark · 2026-09-18T12:22:00Z
Anchored to: “Media Feature – Optional”

Maybe also here can include: Newborn Brain Research Institute with link to their website

Morgan Redding · 2026-09-22T09:24:00Z
Anchored to: “Media Feature – Optional”

Tim- This is a link that Valerie requested to remove, so I’m assuming we shouldn’t add this back in.

McGrath, Timothy · 2026-10-13T10:28:00Z
Anchored to: “Media Feature – Optional”

Remove

Lauren Lamb · 2026-09-25T11:03:00Z
Anchored to: “Research initiatives”

UCSF PROD: Valerie requested we remove the research initiatives component from this page

McGrath, Timothy · 2026-10-13T10:29:00Z
Anchored to: “Research initiatives”

OK!