Each year, the dedicated physicians and staff in the labor and delivery units at NewYork-Presbyterian welcome more babies into New York City and Westchester combined than any other hospital in New York State.
Led by obstetric specialists from two top-ranked institutions, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medicine, our teams work with you to develop a personalized birth plan that optimizes health and reflects your personal preferences and desires.
Whether you are welcoming your first baby or are an experienced parent, our skilled and compassionate teams are here to guide and nurture you through your labor and birth to give you and your baby the best possible outcome.
About Our Labor & Delivery program
AboutNewYork-Presbyterian has two world-class hospitals exclusively dedicated to the unique healthcare needs of women, their birth partners, and their babies:
- The Sloane Hospital for Women, located within NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
- NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns
Our expert and compassionate physicians, surgeons, and specialists at both hospitals provide a full range of services that women and infants may need before, during, and after childbirth. This care includes specialized prenatal care and high-level neonatal intensive care for newborns requiring extra support.
Our labor and delivery units offer a comfortable, family-friendly, and private setting to welcome your new baby, including:
- Obstetrical services for all types of births
- Evaluations in triage rooms for patients experiencing pregnancy concerns
- Specialized medical and nursing staff with high nurse-to-patient staffing levels
- Advanced technology to support labor and birth
- 24-hour obstetrical anesthesiology for pain management and all circumstances requiring obstetric anesthesia care
- On-site, innovative Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICUs)
State-of-the-art birthing rooms
NewYork-Presbyterian's two state-of-the-art hospitals offer 26 birthing rooms equipped with multi-positioned birthing beds and advanced equipment for monitoring and delivering your baby. We also have high-risk rooms to provide acute and critical care for complex cases before, during, and after birth. Our eight advanced operating rooms support a range of ob-gyn procedures, including scheduled and emergency cesarean births.
While in any of our labor and delivery units, you can expect:
- Spacious private and semi-private rooms, including space for an overnight guest. The rooms are large enough for laboring moms to walk and perform pain-relieving exercises.
- Large picture windows and natural lighting
- Dedicated operating rooms on the same floor for emergencies or planned cesarean births
In addition to the amenities available in our units, our well-baby nurseries and neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are just steps away.
Our Labor & Childbirth Services
Our ServicesPain management during labor
At NewYork-Presbyterian, we provide state-of-the-art pain management while respectfully considering your individual preferences and desires. Our dedicated team of obstetric anesthesiologists provides 24-hour service with a pre-anesthesia consultation to develop individualized plans to help relieve the pain and discomfort associated with childbirth. While some may choose non-pharmacologic pain management methods — relaxation, visualization, and breathing techniques —a labor epidural is safe and available for labor pain relief.
Labor pain management during C-section
Our obstetric anesthesiologists are experts in managing labor pain and the provision of anesthesia for cesarean deliveries. With epidural analgesia, patients are offered patient-controlled analgesia using a computer-controlled pump, which provides some control over how much epidural medication is received. This enables us to meet your pain management needs and keep you comfortable while you are in the hospital.
Enhanced recovery after C-section (ERACeD)
Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS®) is a patient-centered, evidence-based approach to care used before, during, and after surgery to improve outcomes and the patient experience. At NewYork-Presbyterian, we have established an Enhanced Recovery after Cesarean Delivery (ERACeD) program to decrease post-operative surgical complications after cesarean delivery and empower patients with self-care tools to enhance their recovery.
The NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia Enhanced Recovery after Cesarean Delivery (ERACeD) program, in collaboration with the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, is investigating ways to promote safe and cautious opioid prescriptions after cesarean delivery, and raise awareness about the risks associated with excessive opioid use postpartum.
Well-baby nurseries
At NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns and the Sloane Hospital for Women, healthy infants are cared for in our well-baby nurseries. The Well-Baby Nursery Care team, comprised of attending pediatricians, pediatric residents, pediatric nurse practitioners, mother-baby nurses, and lactation consultants, provides complete care for term and near-term newborns from birth through discharge, including guidance for the parents.
Well-baby care, which may occur in the nursery or at your bedside, includes:
- Complete physical examination of infants upon admission to the nursery and again on the day of discharge
- Assessment and management of breastfeeding mothers and their infants
- Daily evaluation of infants by the attending pediatrician and nursery healthcare team
- Management of infants with common problems such as weight loss, jaundice, and breastfeeding issues
- Performance of mandated New York State screening tests for all infants
- Administration of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommended birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine
- Administration of New York State mandated birth dose of vitamin K and erythromycin ointment.
Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs)
NewYork-Presbyterian neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are among the country's most experienced and highly regarded units. Our state-of-the-art Level IV NICUs—the highest level of neonatal care available—care for more than 1,500 critically ill infants each year. This may include low birth weight babies, premature babies, and infants with respiratory distress, gastrointestinal disorders, congenital abnormalities, and other conditions that may require surgery.
Our NICUs are staffed with neonatologists, neonatal nurses and nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, psychologists, social workers, nutritionists, and pharmacists who have unique experience caring for critically ill infants. Pediatric medical and surgical subspecialists are readily available for consultation and treatment. These experts use the latest technology and therapies to offer critically ill newborns the best chance for survival and high quality of life.
The Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Infant Cardiac Unit at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital the first of its kind in the nation, is dedicated solely to the cardiac care of infants up to three months old. Staffed by a highly-skilled, multidisciplinary team of neonatal cardiac intensive care specialists, the unit has the most advanced support technology available to care for infants with heart disease. These technologies include specialized ventilation modes for the smallest patients, ECMO/cardiac assist devices such as the Berlin Heart, and 3D printing to help guide the surgery if needed.
The NICU at NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns is the first in New York City equipped with an MRI and an operating room located within the unit.
Postpartum care
After childbirth, you will have time to recover and bond with your baby in the labor room before being transported to the postpartum unit.
Our postpartum care team is here to empower you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to continue caring for your baby. We will teach you how to hold and bathe your baby and identify their feeding cues.
Whether you want to breastfeed or provide formula, we are here to help. All our nurses are highly trained in providing breastfeeding support, and our lactation consultants are available to assist you if you would like additional guidance. If you choose to formula feed, we will teach you the proper preparation and storage of formula.
Why Choose Us
Personalized Birth Plan From Academic Leaders
Why Choose UsExpertise in all Types of Births
Our Columbia and Weill Cornell Medicine labor and delivery teams are led by academic leaders who provide expert and compassionate care for mothers having all types of births, from vaginal births to cesareans, singletons to high-order multiples, and uncomplicated births to complex births that involve multidisciplinary teams of maternal and pediatric subspecialists.
Our physicians collaborate with colleagues in multiple disciplines, including maternal-fetal medicine, neonatology, pediatrics, obstetric anesthesiology, and surgery, to provide care that is tailored to you and your baby's individualized needs.
Seamless Access to Labor & Delivery Specialists, all Under one Roof
At NewYork-Presbyterian, our labor and delivery teams take a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to you and your baby's care. If you have a pre-existing medical condition or develop complications during labor, birth, or postpartum, you will receive care from renowned adult and pediatric specialists. These may include cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, neurologists and neurosurgeons, gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, oncologists, urologists, immunologists, and others. All specialists are located in the same medical center. We can help you access them immediately before, during, and after childbirth, should you or your baby need them. Seamless access to this breadth of specialists is invaluable when expedient treatment can optimize the health of you and your baby.
Innovative Approaches and Lifesaving Treatments
NewYork-Presbyterian is renowned for its expert general obstetricians, maternal-fetal-medicine specialists, and modern facilities, offering the resources you will need throughout the entire journey of your pregnancy, birth, and post-pregnancy. In addition to the latest diagnostic tools and therapies, an extraordinary team of providers is committed to offering the highest level of care with compassion and concern for you and your baby. Our high-risk capabilities are among the best in the nation with the development of specialized programs for high-risk mothers, such as The Mothers Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the nation's first multidisciplinary center to focus specifically on caring for pregnant women with complex medical and surgical conditions.
NewYork-Presbyterian is also nationally recognized for optimizing the health of newborns and minimizing risk in the tiniest, most fragile newborns with our innovative approaches and lifesaving treatments. We have one of the best infant survival rates among NICUs nationally, and the lowest rates of chronic lung disease in the U.S. We are recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for excellence and expertise in the gentle ventilation of neonates, the standard of care in early, acute lung disease in extremely preterm infants. Our devotion to your newborn continues long after their discharge from the NICU, with comprehensive neonatal and nutritional follow-up programs to promote your newborn's growth and development.
Contact Us
Call for an Appointment
At NewYork-Presbyterian, we understand that your child's birth is one of the most important events you will experience in your lifetime. We are here to care for you and your baby throughout your pregnancy and make access to care as close to home and convenient as possible. Request an appointment today at the location nearest you.
NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Sloane Hospital for Women