NewYork-Presbyterian Opens New Hospital for Women and Newborns

The facility is dedicated to providing exceptional, individualized care to pregnant women and their newborns before, during, and after childbirth.

By Melissa Wickes August 5, 2020

NewYork-Presbyterian celebrated the opening of the NewYork Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns today, which officially opened on Aug. 2. The facility is dedicated to providing exceptional, individualized care to pregnant women and their newborns before, during, and after childbirth. This includes advanced care for high-risk pregnancies and newborns who need extra support.

Julianne Kanter and her twins, Connor Alan at 5lbs, 9oz and Emma Diane, 4lbs, 9oz, were three of the hospital's first patients, arriving at 10:22am the morning of Aug. 2.

The 246,500-square-foot hospital is located on the top six floors of the NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center and boasts 75 antepartum and postpartum rooms that allow every patient to have their own room, which promote. privacy, family bonding, and comfort. The 60-bed neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) also has private rooms and the Level IV NICU—which offers the highest level of critical care for newborns—is the first NICU in NYC with a dedicated MRI and operating room.

Quinaya Coleman's son Jamie who was welcomed to the world by emergency C-section on March 21 at 29 weeks, was one of the first babies moved into the new NICU unit at NYP Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns. The individual rooms available to all NICU babies and their families at the hospital—with pull-out couches, linens, and showers—allow Quinaya to stay with her son. Quinaya was previously commuting one hour each way to see her son.

“The NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns is a vital addition to our academic medical center,” said Augustine M.K. Choi, MD, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine. “This warm new space for pregnant women and newborns will enhance the compassionate, cutting-edge care we provide women at all stages of pregnancy and their babies, enabling us to further advance our mission of providing outstanding health care in this essential area of medicine.”

The hospital, which features rooms that are flooded with natural light and art created by women, serves as a place for the most comprehensive, personalized level of care available to women. Multidisciplinary obstetric and neonatal teams of physicians and other health care professionals from Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian will care for every patient holistically. The hospital offers:

A comfortable, private Labor and Delivery Unit for all kinds of deliveries with specialized medical and nursing staff, advanced technologies, and 24-hour obstetric anesthesiology services.
Specialized, expert care for pregnant women with an increased chance for health complications including prenatal consultations, fetal monitoring, and state-of-the-art diagnostic procedures.
After-birth care in a one of the 75 private rooms with a bathroom and shower.
A 60-bed NICU with an MRI and operating room within the unit.
Advanced perinatal care for women whose pregnancies are complicated by fetal conditions.
Prenatal testing and genetic counseling as well as fifteen ultrasound rooms to perform onsite prenatal diagnostic and treatment procedures.
Breastfeeding support

The facility almost triples the space available for pregnant women and newborns at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and will accommodate more than 7,000 births each year. It is part of a systemwide initiative to enhance obstetric services throughout NewYork-Presbyterian's campuses.

"Every child and every mother deserves access to the highest quality of care,” Alexandra Cohen of the Alexandra Cohen Foundation, said in a press release. “We are proud to support NewYork-Presbyterian and the creation of this remarkable new hospital where each patient will be treated with great compassion while receiving the very best care during this momentous time in their life.”