Changes to premature birth care in the region will mean Sunderland Royal Hospital will no longer look after babies born under 26 weeks.
The Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle will now take in babies born under 26 weeks from the South Tyneside and Sunderland area. If cots are not available at the RVI, Middlesbrough's James Cook Hospital will take in the "extremely preterm" children.
Sunderland's intensive neonatal care unit is the smallest in the country, meaning it is not active enough to meet clinical standards for extremely premature babies. The changes are estimated to affect five families annually in the Sunderland and South Tyneside area.