Paediatrics

From the start of life, the Iris Network offers a remarkable range of support for mothers and newborns. Because of the high number of births in its hospitals, the Network offers the full range of perinatal services, along with sizeable units and departments dedicated to birth and the first days of newborn life.

As well as providing care during straightforward pregnancies and births, the three maternity units are also designed to cater for at-risk and high risk pregnancies. Alongside these maternity units, our neonatal intensive care departments care for the most vulnerable newborns, those with congenital defects, babies suffering distress at birth and the very premature and extremely premature (less than 1 kilo).

The configuration of the Iris Network hospitals and the special relationship between them play a key role in the range and efficiency of the services offered.
In the north of the Region, the CHU Brugmann maternity unit and the neighbouring Queen Fabiola Children’s University Hospital (QFCUH) are directly linked, making it possible to monitor the most at-risk pregnancies and births and offer immediate care, without the need for ambulance transport, for all newborn ailments in specialist paediatric departments. Mothers are referred there prior to giving birth: vulnerable infants are then born within this advanced paediatric care centre (via “in utero transfer”).
In the centre and south of the Region, the Iris Sud and CHU Saint-Pierre hospitals have created an interhospital mother-and-child department, that pools all their obstetric and paediatric skills to treat even the most severe cases.
Throughout the Region, the Iris Network arranges appropriate care within the Network - for example, transferring high-risk pregnant women to the department best equipped to handle problems during birth and ensuring that extremely premature babies or those suffering from serious conditions are directed to the appropriate specialist unit for such cases… offering unparalleled organisation, a condiderable gain of time and efficiency!

The Babies’ Friend

• Indicative of their reputation is the fact that all three Iris Network maternity units are part of the IHAB (Baby Friendly Hospital) initiative, an international scheme created in 1992 by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF to promote breastfeeding, among other things. 
• The purpose of IHAB is to promote hospital practices that respect the needs and pace of newborn babies, thus improving their early days of life.

The paediatric reference centre for the whole of the ULB Network

The QFCUH is a unique hospital in Belgium, devoted entirely to children and adolescents. It has 170 beds and offers a number of advanced care services, receiving patients from all over the country and handling serious heart disorders, severe abnormalities, kidney transplants, allergic conditions, cochlear implant surgery, metabolic diseases and severe chronic conditions such as cystic fibrosis and degenerative neurological diseases. Though the hospital treats very serious conditions, the length of time children spend there is reduced through the use of out-patient treatment and day hospital care programmes. The paramedical teams (physios, nurses, psychologists and dieticians) offer outstanding support to patients, helping to reduce the complications of their condition and considerably improving average life expectancy, which is rising all the time. Technology and humanity go hand in hand to deliver effective and friendly care.