Neonatology

The Mother Baby Center, a partnership between Children’s Minnesota and Allina Health, is expanding its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) services. The Center will enhance neonatal care at its Mercy Hospital location in Coon Rapids, shifting from a Level II special care nursery to a Level III NICU.

Richard was born at 21 weeks, making him one of the youngest babies to survive, according to Dr. Stacy Kern, their neonatologist.

Yishan was born at 23 weeks and weighed only 520 grams, which is a little heavier than a pound of butter. The team at Children's Minnesota gave the Chan family hope that their preemie baby would be a miracle baby — and he was.

For one family, Vikings game day turned into something very memorable as they welcomed their new baby just before kickoff. Super fan John Olson and Liz Glasser shared their story and experience with Children’s Minnesota with the Minnesota Vikings.

Ten years ago, Children’s Minnesota began partnering with Ridgeview in Waconia to bring a higher level of neonatal care to communities in the southwest metro. Since then, Ridgeview, in collaboration with Children’s Minnesota, has cared for nearly 1,500 infants at its Level II neonatal care unit (NCU) that features 7 private rooms and 13 total beds. In fact, the NCU at Ridgeview was set up to mirror the layout of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children’s Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis.

Children’s Minnesota is excited to introduce 4 new neonatologists that started at Children’s Minnesota this summer. Our growing team now has over 20 neonatologists with strong expertise in critical newborn care, extreme prematurity, complex surgery, ECMO capability and NICU follow up clinic to continue care of former NICU patients.

Dr. Lia Gravari, a neonatologist at Children’s Minnesota, provided her expert insights about neonatal pneumonia, one of the leading causes of neonatal respiratory distress in a question-and-answer style article in Infectious Disease Advisor.

The purpose of the NICU Follow-up Clinic is to provide you and your family with an assessment of your child and to collect information about the outcome of children who were patients in the Children’s NICU so we can continue to improve what we do. Through the clinic, your child’s progress is monitored at regular intervals. This allows us to assess how your child is doing and be able to identify any issues early on, before your child reaches school age to ensure that timely referrals can be made to your physician and other specialty providers. Unique to Children’s, the clinic also offers IQ testing with a clinical psychologist and sees patients up to five years of age.