Our mission

The Division of Newborn Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital is a world leader in the critical care of newborns. We are dedicated to caring for newborns and their families through excellent, science-driven clinical care, and to transforming the field of neonatology through discovery, innovation, and medical education.

Our expertise in neonatal care

We provide comprehensive pre- and postnatal consultations, specialized intensive care, and continuous follow-up services for congenital conditions and conditions that develop after birth.

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Adult's finger touches tiny hand of newborn in incubator
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
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Mom holds baby, father looks on
NICU Growth and Developmental Support Programs (GraDS)
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Hospital employee holds baby swaddled in blanket
Neonatology Consultation Service
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Adult touches tiny foot of newborn baby
Prenatal evaluation

Advancing the field of newborn medicine

Faculty in the Division of Newborn Medicine have productive and active research programs spanning basic and translational science, clinical investigation, medical education, and medical ethics. 

The Harvard Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Training Program was founded in 1974 by Dr. Mary Ellen Avery — renowned internationally for her groundbreaking discovery of surfactant deficiency as a cause of respiratory distress syndrome — and is based within the Division of Newborn Medicine. Originally called the Joint Program in Neonatology, the program is dedicated to training the next generation of academic neonatologists who excel in newborn care and research. The program has been an NICHD T32-funded training program since 1994, and more than 80 percent of its graduates continue in academic research careers, going on to hold major leadership roles at national and international levels.

December 3, 2025

The ‘Trach Chapter’: Isabella’s journey with bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Isabella’s life has been anything but ordinary. Born at just 27 weeks gestation and weighing only 1 pound, 4 ounces, Isabella has faced uncertainty from the very start. But as her parents, Hrach…

February 6, 2025

Modifying macrophages in the lung could head off pulmonary hypertension

In the 1980s, when Stella Kourembanas, MD, began her career in neonatology, she cared for newborns with pulmonary hypertension, a disease that results in abnormally high blood pressure in the lung…

January 28, 2025

My son is a NICU GraD: Here’s what I’ve learned

My husband and I aren’t first-time parents, but when our twins were born nine weeks early a year ago, everything we thought we knew went out the window. The thing is, it wasn’t Cal and Theo’s…