Prenatal Pediatrics News

U.S. News & World Report ranked Children’s National a top 10 children’s hospital for its Best Children’s Hospitals annual rankings for 2020-21, with a #1 ranking in newborn care for the fourth straight year. Learn more about our specialty care rankings.

When pregnant women experience elevated anxiety, stress or depression, these prenatal stressors can alter the structure of the developing fetal brain and disrupt its biochemistry - even if these women have uncomplicated pregnancies and high socioeconomic status, according to Children’s National Hospital research published online Jan. 29, 2020, in JAMA Network Open.

The annual "Top Doctors" list from Northern Virginia Magazine features 76 Children’s National Hospital care providers across 25 specialties. 

Knowing that your unborn fetus has congenital heart disease causes such pronounced maternal stress, anxiety and depression that these women’s fetuses end up with impaired development in key brain regions before they are born, according to research published online Jan. 13, 2020, in JAMA Pediatrics.

In late May 2019, Children’s National neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) introduced NicView^TM, a camera system that enables parents to log in from any internet-enabled device to see their infants virtually when they are unable to visit the NICU in person.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Children’s National #6 overall for its Best Children’s Hospitals annual rankings for 2019-20, with a #1 ranking in newborn care for the third straight year.

Find out more about how the Children’s National NICU has slashed unintended extubation rates by 60% over 10 years.

The annual "Top Doctors" list from Northern Virginia Magazine features 59 Children’s National Health System care providers across 23 specialties. 

Standardizing feeding practices, including the timing for fortifying breast milk and formula with essential elements like zinc and protein, improves growth trends for the tiniest preterm infants, according to Children’s research presented during the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) 2018 Scientific Symposium. The symposium is held in conjunction with the IHI National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care.

Ultrasound (US) imaging performed during pregnancy and after childbirth revealed most Zika-related brain abnormalities experienced by infants exposed to the Zika virus during pregnancy, according to a prospective cohort study published online Nov. 26, 2018, in JAMA Pediatrics. Some Zika-exposed infants whose imaging had been normal during pregnancy had mild brain abnormalities detected by US and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after they were born.