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BABY Exclusive look inside ChristianaCare's new state-of-the-art center for women, children By Ashley Johnson NEWARK, Delaware (WPVI) -- Action News got an exclusive look inside the new Center for Women's and Children's Health at ChristianaCare Hospital in Newark, Delaware. "It's kind of like you're in a resort so to say. Everything is so fancy and new," said mom, Briana Thompkins. This state-of-the-art facility opened in the midst of the pandemic and has been several years in the making. What makes it so special is the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) couplet model, where moms and newborns can stay in the same room. In most hospitals, they're separated. Twins Gianna and Roni were the first in the new NICU. "It's nice I can even be here, spend time with them and obviously they're still so little, but it's great I can even be a presence in the room," said the new mom of twins, Janet Roth. Doctors say that initial bonding time for mom and baby is crucial. "We're really focusing on the family and we realize if the mother's healthy, the baby's healthy," Dr. David Paul said. ChristianaCare is busy when it comes to babies. Doctors say they deliver the most babies out of any hospital in the tri-state. About 6,000 babies are born each year here.

There was something different about this birth for Katie and Brian Rubin. Yes, their second child, Emma, was born on May 5 amid a pandemic. But the other difference the Rubins noticed was ChristianaCare's new Center for Women's and Children's Health. "Great experience last time as well," said Katie Rubin, as she kept an eye on her newborn. "The main thing this time, the rooms are a little bigger. It's a little bit easier to have Brian here. "It's nicer to have him here to help with everything." That family convenience is what ChristianaCare had in mind when it started the project, which has been nearly three years in the making. It had its soft opening during the last week of April – and on schedule. Their first daughter, Hannah, was born two years ago in the hospital's old building. "The real driving factor for the building was improving our family experience and keeping families together," said Dr. David Paul, chair of ChristianaCare's pediatrics department.

“The first step in being a healthy adult is being a healthy baby and healthy child,” said David Paul, M.D., chair, Department of Pediatrics. “Health starts right at birth. How you do at birth and how you do in those early years makes an impact throughout your life. We want to keep moms, babies and our community healthy, and this new facility enables us to do that better than ever.”

“I think what we heard today is that we need more community voices,” said Dr. David Paul, chair of the Consortium. “Despite our great efforts— we’ve reduced infant mortality twenty-plus percent in Delaware— we still have incredible racial disparities,” Paul added. “We need to find a way to solve that problem, hear everybody’s voices and really have those hard and true conversations on racism and how that affects outcomes.”...

Dr. David Paul, chair of the hospital system's pediatrics department, said most of the ChristianaCare cuddlers focus on babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome, a condition that can result in babies being irritable, sleep-deprived, prone to tremors and vomiting and difficult to feed...

A recent investigative report conducted by USA Today and published in this paper revealed that maternal mortality rates are higher in the United States than in any other developed nation. Too many women in the U.S. are dying or are seriously injured in ways that could be prevented...

Single family rooms would ensure they are clean and babies are comfortable to decrease that risk, added Dr. David Paul, ChristianaCare's chair of pediatrics. The hospital currently has 16 private birthing rooms, but plans would expand the labor and delivery unit by four rooms and add more triage space for high-risk moms and premature babies...