NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns Opens

NewYork-Presbyterian celebrated the opening of NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns on August 2, a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to providing exceptional, individualized care to pregnant women and their newborns before, during, and after childbirth — including advanced care for high-risk pregnancies and newborns who require extra support.

Located on the top six floors of NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center, the 246,500-square-foot hospital’s 75 antepartum and postpartum rooms allow every patient to have their own room, promoting privacy, family bonding, and comfort. The 60-bed neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) also features private rooms. The new hospital’s Level IV NICU — offering the highest level of critical care for newborns — is the first in New York City that has a dedicated MRI and operating room right in the NICU.

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

The hospital is made possible by a $75 million gift from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, which also supported the creation of the Alexandra & Steven Cohen Pediatric Emergency Department at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in Washington Heights.

“Every child and every mother deserves access to the highest quality of care,” said Alexandra Cohen. “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.”

“The opening of the NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns reflects NewYork-Presbyterian’s commitment to setting ever-higher standards of care for women and their newborns,” said Jerry I. Speyer, chairman of the NewYork-Presbyterian Board of Trustees. “This incredible facility will be home to the latest equipment and resources available and, most importantly, the most talented and dedicated doctors, nurses, and care teams in New York or in the country.”

“The NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns has been designed, first and foremost, as a place for mothers and their babies to receive the highest quality, most personalized level of care available,” said Dr. Steven J. Corwin, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian. “The hospital’s best-in-class model of care combines outstanding care teams, cutting-edge clinical technologies and a beautiful, nurturing setting that prioritizes our patients’ privacy, safety, and comfort.”

The NYP Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns, which features spacious rooms flooded with natural light and art created by women, serves as a destination for comprehensive, individualized care that is coordinated and seamless. Team members work across disciplines and specialties to treat even the most complex maternal-fetal and newborn conditions. Working collaboratively under one roof, multidisciplinary obstetric and neonatal teams of physicians and other healthcare professionals from Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian will care for each patient holistically. These teams include highly trained obstetrician-gynecologists, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, neonatologists, obstetric anesthesiologists, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, lactation consultants, social workers, nutritionists, geneticists, genetic counselors, and psychiatrists, among others. The pediatric specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital are available to provide care during and after a newborn’s hospital stay.

“The NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns is a vital addition to our academic medical center,” said Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi, 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 healthcare in this essential area of medicine.”

Sixteen birthing rooms are all equipped with a special multipositioned birthing bed and state-of-the art equipment for monitoring and delivery. Five operating rooms, including a fully equipped operating room with a portable CT scanner and other technologies, give multidisciplinary teams the ability to perform complex procedures and routine cesarean deliveries. The hospital supports all women, both high-risk and low-risk pregnancies. Care teams respect each woman’s desired birth experience and support nonmedicated childbirth when preferred; the hospital offers tubs for labor pain management, and doulas are welcomed.

“We have been focused on developing an obstetric practice where safety is paramount for mothers and babies, and our teams are guided by the importance of respecting and supporting the diverse needs of every patient,” said Dr. Laura Riley, obstetrician and gynecologist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “Our clinical teams are the best at what they do, and they are excited to get to work in this ideal, new setting.”

“The opening of the NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns represents our commitment to expanding access to truly exceptional care for women, their newborns, and the entire family,” said Dr. Katherine Heilpern, senior vice president and chief operating officer of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “Whether mothers require complex or more routine care, they will find a beautiful birth experience, a dedicated support team, and everything they need for themselves and their babies.”

As a Level IV center with advanced in-unit technologies, the NICU can provide care for the sickest infants and offers the highest designated level of newborn care available. The NICU features individual rooms, where a parent can spend the night with their baby, enhancing privacy, comfort, and closeness.

“Our teams can provide the highest-skilled care for all newborns with the latest equipment and highly-specialized technologies available to them,” said Dr. Jeffrey Perlman, director of newborn medicine and medical director of the NICU at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine. “What’s also wonderful for families is that the single-room environment in the 60-bed NICU will allow a parent to spend high-quality peaceful time with their baby, which is so important for a newborn’s development and family bonding.”