It was the day after Christmas, December 26, 2022, when six-months pregnant Maria Patterson began to feel strong labor contractions. She had traveled from Texas to North Carolina with her husband, McKinley Patterson, IV, and their seven-year-old son to celebrate the holidays with family. She’d experienced Braxton Hicks contractions just days prior, so Maria figured […]
For the past six years, WakeMed’s NICU has participated in the Kangaroo Challenge from Sunnybrook Hospital in Canada. This is an international challenge to see which hospital can log the most hours participating in kangaroo care. Each year for 15 days, we ‘challenge’ our parents with a Kangaroo-A-Thon to kangaroo their babies as usual—but this […]
Download a printable version of this blog post. For the past five years, WakeMed’s NICU has participated in the Kangaroo Challenge from Sunnybrook Hospital in Canada. This is an international challenge to see which hospital can log the most hours participating in kangaroo care. Each year for 15 days, we ‘challenge’ our parents with a […]
Download a printable version of this blog post. In September of 2017, a group of WakeMed NICU providers, led by Dr. Claudia Tolentino Cadet, visited the Central American country of Belize for seven days to share education about neonatal developmental care, nutrition, and respiratory care. The trip was sponsored by the World Pediatric Project, a […]
My name is Shanda Smallwood, and I am a proud mother of a former 24-weeker. It gives me great joy to share a little of our story. On November 7, 2014, I called my doctor and informed her that something wasn’t feeling right, as every 10 to 15 minutes, I was getting a throbbing feeling […]
WakeMed NICU babies are in for a special Halloween surprise, thanks to the skills of a few parents and the fundraising efforts led entirely by former WakeMed NICU mom, Amanda Walker. Below, Amanda shares her NICU story and how these loving donations are making a big impact in the lives of our tiniest patients and their […]
My husband, Christopher, and I were elated when we discovered that we were expecting. Every doctor’s appointment showed that everything was progressing as expected, …but on Mother’s Day, I was in an ambulance on the way from WakeMed Cary to WakeMed in Raleigh with the certainty that this child that we had hoped and prayed […]
Every year during the fall, winter and early spring, we restrict visitation to our Children’s Hospital and our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The reason: to protect our patients from viruses like RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). You may have never heard of RSV, but there is a very good chance that you HAVE had it. For […]
Today is prematurity awareness day. As the home of Wake County’s most advanced Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, we hold a special place in our hearts for premature infants and their families. Watch Hannah’s story of prematurity and meet her rainbow baby.
After nearly 40 years working as a neonatologist in the WakeMed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Dr. Ross Vaughan recently officially retired. Although he missed the opening of Wake County’s first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit by four years, he provided exceptional care to Wake County’s tiniest babies and their families and has seen the unit grow […]
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