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Abbott Northwestern Hospital

The Mother Baby Center’s due date is early 2013

Jim and Jodi Muelken with daughters Cady and Maiah, and son Jake. Jake was born at 28 weeks gestation at Abbott Northwestern following six weeks of inpatient care and immediately cared for at Children's. Today he is healthy and approaching his fifth birthday.

Inside The Mother Baby Center

1st Floor – Public space

  • Entrance, elevators and reception area
  • Future entrance to conference center

2nd Floor – Special care nursery and ante/post partum unit

  • 24-room, 31-bed special care nursery (allows for two triples and three twins)
  • 20-bed ante-partum/post-partum unit
  • New skyway connection between the Midtown Doctors Building and the Piper Building

3rd Floor – Labor and delivery, operating rooms, high-risk ante-partum, maternal assessment center (MAC)

  • 13 labor and delivery rooms
  • 3 operating rooms, including one larger OR to support complex cases
  • 6-room MAC
  • 11-bed high-risk ante-partum unit
  • Normal newborn nursery
  • Skyway connection from Mother Baby ORs directly to Children’s NICU
  • First floor of the Celebration Plaza, a gathering/waiting area for patients, families and visitors

4th Floor – Post-partum

  • 24-bed post-partum unit
  • Normal newborn nursery
  • On-call rooms
  • Second floor of the Celebration Plaza

On Oct. 5, Abbott Northwestern, in partnership with Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, held a groundbreaking celebration for The Mother Baby Center.

The new state-of-the-art birthing center will be completed in fall of 2012. It will offer mothers, babies and families a 96,000 square-foot center that fully integrates Abbott Northwestern’s maternal assessment, labor and delivery, ante-partum and post-partum units, and newborn and special care nurseries with Children's neonatal intensive care units. Moms and their newborns will be just steps away from all of Children's specialists and services.

Jim and Jodi Muelken, parents of three who spoke at the groundbreaking, shared their story of the importance of keeping a family together in those critical early days. When Jodi was just 22 weeks pregnant with her third child, Jake, she suffered from a premature membrane rupture. She and her husband Jim requested to be cared for at Abbott Northwestern, where they knew the high-risk pregnancy specialists and the team at Children’s would give them the best chance for a successful outcome.

After six weeks of successfully stalling delivery, Jodi gave birth to Jake, who was immediately cared for at Children's. Following 11 weeks of specialized care at Children’s, the family brought Jake home to join two older sisters. Today, he is a healthy five-year-old.

"That first tunnel ride over to Children’s was the longest ride of my life," said Jodi. "The Mother Baby Center will keep families closer together during the good and difficult times, which is so important for the baby and parents."

Did you know?

Last year, more than 4,000 babies were born at Abbott Northwestern’s Birth Center.

To date, approximately $2.3 million has been raised towards a $5 million goal, with a lead gift of $1 million from Abbott Northwestern Hospital Foundation board member and philanthropist Muffy MacMillan.

Make a donation to The Mother Baby Center.