For most families, childbirth is filled with firsts: the first cry, the first cuddle, the first hours spent getting to know a brand-new baby. But for parents facing a high-risk pregnancy or a newborn who needs intensive medical care, those first moments often look very different. Instead of staying together, mothers and babies are frequently separated almost immediately after delivery—sometimes receiving care in different hospitals.
SSM Health hopes to change that.
When the new SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital opens in late 2027, it will include the St. Louis region’s first fully integrated Center for Maternal and Newborn Specialized Care, bringing labor and delivery, maternal specialists, fetal care, and the highest level of neonatal intensive care together under one roof.
“Our goal is really wrapping our arms around both mom and the baby,” says Dr. Hossain Marandi, president of SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital and system vice president of pediatric services. “Everything happens in one place.”
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Keeping families together
Traditionally, mothers experiencing complex pregnancies may deliver in one hospital while newborns requiring advanced neonatal care are transferred elsewhere for treatment. That separation, Marandi says, can be emotionally devastating during a time when bonding is especially important.
“As a pediatrician and a father, I can tell you the first few hours and first few days after delivery are extremely vital,” he says. “When mom and baby receive the care they need in one location, coordinated together, the outcomes are always better.”
The new center is designed specifically to reduce those separations whenever it’s medically appropriate. Spanning four floors of the new children’s hospital, the center will include 18 maternal rooms, two cesarean delivery suites equipped for fetal surgery, 10 maternal-newborn couplet rooms, and 90 Level IV NICU beds—the highest level of neonatal intensive care available.
The most distinctive feature, however, is the couplet-care model.
Rather than automatically separating mothers and babies when a newborn requires intensive care, certain families will be able to remain together in the same private room while specialized teams care for both patients simultaneously.
Supporting bonding and breastfeeding
For parents, keeping mothers and babies together is not only about comfort; it also supports breastfeeding, skin-to-skin bonding, and the emotional connection that develops during a baby’s earliest days.
“As pediatricians, we’re strong advocates of breastfeeding because of the significant positive effects for both mom and baby,” Marandi says. “Keeping them together allows that breastfeeding journey to continue while also supporting all of the emotional bonding that happens during those first hours of life.”
The approach also simplifies what can otherwise become an overwhelming experience for families navigating multiple specialists and complex medical decisions.
Instead of traveling between facilities or coordinating care across different hospitals, parents can access maternal specialists, neonatal experts, surgeons, and pediatric subspecialists in one coordinated location.
A new model for the region
Marandi believes that the center represents more than a new hospital unit. He sees it as a shift in how complex pregnancies are cared for throughout the region.
“This truly is a national best practice that we’re bringing to St. Louis,” he says.
Similar integrated maternal-newborn centers have recently opened at several of the country’s top-ranked children’s hospitals. Cardinal Glennon will become the first hospital in the St. Louis region to adopt the model.
The center will also preserve SSM Health St. Mary’s maternity expertise while connecting families directly to Cardinal Glennon’s nationally recognized pediatric specialists and the Cardinal Glennon Fetal Care Institute.
Construction on the new Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital continues, with the hospital expected to open in late 2027. The maternal and newborn care center is expected to welcome its first patients in early 2028.
For families who learn during pregnancy that they or their baby may require advanced medical care, Marandi hopes the new center will offer something just as valuable as cutting-edge medicine: peace of mind.
“It’s already hard enough to think about a pregnancy becoming complicated,” he says. “We want families to know they can come to one destination where every resource they need is available, while doing everything we can to keep mom and baby together.”
