Birth Place

Since 1969, more than 50,000 babies have been born at UAB Hospital.

For decades, UAB Hospital has been a beacon of hope for babies—and mothers—in distress. UAB’s Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit/Continuing Care Nursery is the only unit in Alabama to hold the Level IIIC rating, the highest possible. UAB is the only medical center involved in all three National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinical research initiatives in the areas of maternal, child, and family health, and UAB Hospital is the only facility in the region with high-risk pregnancy experts available day and night, every day of the week. This top-notch care brings results: Patient outcomes rank among the best in the country.

Researchers from UAB’s Division of Neonatology have pioneered techniques to prevent prematurity and to increase survival rates and quality of life for premature infants. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology ranks second in the country in NIH research funding and has pioneered approaches to managing care for women with high-risk pregnancies.

Next spring, UAB is planning to give birth to its own new addition. The 400,000-square-foot Women & Infants Center will have private labor, delivery, and recovery rooms for a family-centered birthing experience. There will also be special rooms for Caesarean deliveries, for expectant mothers experiencing severe pregnancy-related complications, and for women undergoing advanced gynecological procedures or treatment for gynecologic cancers.

The center’s Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit/Continuing Care Nursery will be one of the largest in the nation, and one of the first in the Southeast to have private neonatal intensive care rooms, allowing parents and stabilized infants to stay together in the same room. The new center will also create another kind of healthy bonding: For the first time, UAB’s internationally recognized services for women and infants will come together under one roof.

Did You Know?

In 2002, Alabama’s first set of sextuplets—the only surviving set of African-American sextuplets in the U.S.—was born at UAB Hospital.