written by: Susan Lacke photos by: Adam Finkle
This the place to have a preemy.
Utah boasts top-rated facilities for pre-term babies.
Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City is ranked as one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals in 10 of 10 specialties in U.S. News & World Report’s 2017-18 Best Children’s Hospitals Rankings Report. Primary Children’s is ranked in the top 15 for cardiology and is one of only 24 hospitals in the nation to be ranked in all 10 categories.
The Salt Lake City Shriners Hospital for Children is a 40-bed specialty orthopedic hospital, with comprehensive in-house services providing world-class care to children, regardless of a family’s ability to pay.
Pregnancy is a time of joy, anticipation and lots of planning–picking out names, getting the nursery décor just right, writing a birth plan–some even go so far as to create an iTunes playlist for the baby to dance into the world on the day of birth.
But what happens when things don’t go according to plan? Each year, 10 to 15 percent of babies born in the United States (roughly half a million) are admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. Most are premature (born before 37 weeks of pregnancy) or have a medical condition that requires special care.
In Utah, approximately 5,000 families each year don’t get to carry out their perfect plans for a perfect birth experience. What they get instead, they say, are tiny miracles.
These are their stories: Peyton’s Story | Kadence Joy’s Story | Flint and Elliot’s Story
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See more inside our 2017 November/December Issue.
