Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU)
When your newborn needs more care than expected, we're here — with the expertise, the technology, and the compassionate team to support your whole family. Our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and special care nursery provide the highest level of intensive care for sick and premature newborns.
Akron Children's Neonatology and NICU program is ranked #27 among the nation's best in the Newsweek/Statista America's Best Children's Hospitals 2025 rankings for Neonatology.
Learn more...
About Neonatology (NICU)
Among the common conditions we treat in our neonatal intensive care unit are breathing, intestinal and surgical problems, congenital heart defects, prematurity, and very low birth weight. For neonates with congenital heart defects, our NICU team works in close collaboration with The Heart Center to provide coordinated, multidisciplinary care from the earliest days of life.
Our NICU and special care nursery teams create a quiet, nurturing environment designed to closely mimic the womb — with subdued lighting and noise, slow and gentle motions when caring for preemies, and swaddling to help your baby feel safe and secure.
Research has shown that these practices result in:
- fewer days on the ventilator
- earlier feeding success
- shorter hospital stays
- reduction in complications
- improved neuro-developmental outcomes during the first 18 months of life
Once settled in the NICU or special care nursery, your baby will receive care tailored to their individual needs. We're committed to providing not only the most advanced neonatal intensive care, but also the emotional and practical support your family needs — through parent mentors and lactation consultants who are with you every step of the way.
We also encourage Kangaroo Care — skin-to-skin contact between parent and newborn — as a routine part of care in our NICU. This practice has been shown to stabilize vital signs such as heart and respiratory rates, reduce the need for oxygen, and foster the bonding that matters so much in those early days.
In addition, we're a member of the Vermont Oxford Network, a data-sharing collaboration of neonatal professionals worldwide dedicated to improving the quality and safety of care for newborns and their families.
NICU, Akron Children's
Akron Children's NICUKay Jewelers Pavilion
177 West Exchange Street
6th floor
Akron, Ohio 44302
Map & directions
More about this location...
Department: 330-543-8352
NICU, Summa Health
Akron Children's NICU at Summa HealthSumma Health - Akron Campus
141 North Forge Street
Level 3
Akron, Ohio 44304
Fax: 330-375-7416
Map & directions
More about this location...
Department: 330-375-3528
NICU, Canton
Akron Children's NICU at Aultman HospitalAultman Birth Center
2600 Sixth Street Southwest
Bedford Building, 4th floor
Canton, Ohio 44710
Map & directions
More about this location...
Department: 330-363-5433
NICU, Boardman
Akron Children's NICU at St. ElizabethSt. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital
8401 Market Street
Level 3
Boardman, Ohio 44512
Map & directions
More about this location...
Department: 330-729-4250
Special Care Nursery, Boardman
Akron Children's Special Care Nursery, Boardman6505 Market St.
Boardman, Ohio 44512
Fax: 330-746-8681
Map & directions
More about this location...
Department: 330-746-8680
Special Care Nursery, St. Joseph Warren Hospital
Akron Children’s Special Care Nursery, St. Joseph Warren Hospital667 Eastland Ave. SE
Warren, Ohio 44484
Map & directions
More about this location...
Department: 330-841-2365
Special Care Nursery, Wooster
Akron Children's Special Care Nursery at Wooster Community HospitalWooster Community Hospital
1761 Beall Ave.
Wooster, Ohio 44691
Map & directions
More about this location...
Department: 330-263-8100
Marya Strand, MD, MS
Chair, Department of Neonatal and Perinatal Medicine; Thomas R. & Mary Lynn Crowley Endowed Chair in Neonatology and Maternal Fetal Medicine; Director, Division of Neonatology; Neonatologist
Jennifer Grow, MD
Interim Director, Division of Neonatology; Medical Director, Akron NICUs; Clinical Professor of Pediatrics - Northeastern Ohio Medical University
Melissa Swaney, MSN, APRN-CNP
Senior Director, Neonatal Advanced Practice Providers; Neonatal Nurse Practitioner
Our NICU network spans multiple locations across the region, offering varying levels of care to meet each baby's needs close to home. Regardless of where your baby receives care, all of our NICUs are staffed by the same expert Akron Children's neonatology team.
- NICU, Akron Children's (Kay Jewelers Pavilion) — Level 4: The highest designation, capable of providing the most complex surgical and subspecialty care for critically ill newborns.
- NICU at Summa Health, Akron — Level 3: Advanced care for premature and seriously ill newborns.
- NICU at Aultman Hospital, Canton — Level 3: Advanced care for premature and seriously ill newborns.
- NICU at St. Elizabeth, Boardman — Level 3: Advanced care for premature and seriously ill newborns.
For more details about each location, including directions and contact information, visit our NICU locations pages.
Conditions and Treatments:
birth defect, failure to thrive, hyperbilirubinemia, jaundice, respiratory distress syndrome, retinopathy of prematurity, transient tachypnea-newborn
