PROVIDENCE – Some 50 years after the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU, at Women & Infants Hospital and its Follow-Up Clinic first opened its doors in 1974, some 200 guests attended a big party – there were mothers, fathers, siblings -- and four-year-old children who were born in 2020 and who had resided for a time at the NICU.

The party showcased joy and resilience, the kind of “good news story” that so often gets lost in waves of fear and anxiety being broadcast by the Trumpian merchants of doom and gloom and lies.

For those with a very short memory span, 2020 was the year that the COVID 19 pandemic struck, changing forever the way that health care is delivered.

Because of COVID, the parents and children of the NICU never had an opportunity to celebrate their arrival in a reunion party until four years later – on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 15. The room was filled with laughter and smiles and the sounds of joy.

Just the facts, folks    
By the numbers, in 2020, there were nearly 1,500 newborns cared for in the Women & Infants NICU. The smallest baby was born weighing less than 1 pound. The youngest baby was born at 23 weeks and three days. And, the baby that stayed the longest at the NICU was there for 275 days, according to Dr. Elisabeth McGowan, MD, director of the NICU Neonatal Follow-Up Clinic.

“I’m delighted that we can celebrate our 2020 babies as they turn 4 this year,” Dr. McGowan said. “COVID was a tremendously stressful period on many different lvels, and families and babies have shown so much resilience.”

Under Dr. McGowan’s leadership, the Follow-Up Clinic provides comprehensive, family-centered developmental, behavioral, medical, nutritional, and social support to high-risk infants born at Women & Infants Hospital and cared for in the NICU, particularly for infants born less than 34 weeks in gestational age.

The clinic consists of neonatologists, pediatricians, nurse practitioners, psychologists, and social workers that provide clinic visits 4 days a week in addition to home visits for some of the patients.

Overall, Women & Infants Hospital is the ninth largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the nation, with approximately 8,700 deliveries a year.

One-on-one with Dr. McGowan    
Amidst the general din of happy children and parents celebrating a kind of large group birthday party, ConvergenceRI spoke briefly with Dr. McGowan about her work at the clinic.

ConvergenceRI: How long have you been director?    
McGOWAN: I have been medical director for three years. The prior director was a founder of the clinic. She was my mentor and I trained under her. I have been back at Women & Infants for about 15 years.

ConvergenceRI: There is a lot of exciting research that is being done by Dr. Jill Maron, using non-invasive saliva swabs to conduct rapid genomic sequencing of newborns. Are you familiar with her work? Can you talk about how that research has proided an opportunity to change the way that care is delivered to newborns?    
McGOWAN: One of the studies that I know about is looking at feeding readiness. And the saliva swabs are actually looking at identifying genes that turn on feeding readiness.

ConvergenceRI: What are the metrics that you are using to measure whether there has been an increase in the number of NICU babies in the last two years?    
McGOWAN: I think it has been similar to the past several years. I haven’t necessarily seen more babies come through. But it is cyclical. Sometimes we will have more preterm babies than others.

ConvergenceRI: What do you see as the challenges moving forward?    
McGOWAN: What we are finding is that we having more and more families that are having environmental stresses at home. A lot of families have difficulty getting to the NICU to see their babies, because of transportation issues. There are food issues and families that need mental health support. It can limit mothers sometimes from coming and bonding with their baby in the NICU.

We are looking at trying to figure out ways to really help support mothers and fathers so that they can spend more time with their baby and ease the transition from the intensive care unit back into the home

ConvergenceRI: Do you think there could be an opportunity to create a campus for young mothers and fathers here at Women & Infants, in order to help the parents make that transition from the NICU to the home?    
McGOWAN: [breaking into a big smile] That would be wonderful! Anything that we an do to really provide space for mothers to come and to spend time and perhaps help with other mothers who are having difficulties. Anything we could do to help facilitate that, I would be 110 percent behind that.

ConvergenceRI: Anything that I haven’t asked you that I should have asked that you would like to talk about?    
McGOWAN: This particular reunion is important to me, because all of these children were born during COVID, and the NICU never shut down. I think many of the families showed tremendous resilience. And I think this is a great way to celebrate as a family.