Baylor Scott & White's new NICU in Round Rock prevents long separations for families

AUSTIN (KXAN) – A new NICU center at Baylor Scott & White in Round Rock is helping moms bond with their newborns sooner.

For Jenna Ream, what began as a routine doctor’s appointment at 34 weeks quickly turned into an emergency delivery. She was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication that causes high blood pressure, and was told she had just 30 minutes to prepare for her baby’s arrival.

Thanks to the newly opened NICU in Round Rock, her daughter, Vera, could receive care close by. Just weeks earlier, babies needing advanced care would have been transferred to Temple — separating moms from their newborns during recovery.

KXAN producer Jose Torres spoke with Ream and her doctor, Dr. Sweatha Kasala, neonatologist at Baylor Scott & White, on KXAN Plus’ Simple Health about the new NICU and its impact on families.

Read an edited transcription of the conversation below.

Jose Torres: Jenna, start us off by telling us about your journey over the last couple of months.

Jenna Ream: Our journey hasn’t been a necessarily easy one, very chaotic. I was pregnant with Vera, and I went in for a regular OB appointment at 34 weeks of gestation. And after being reviewed and not feeling very well, I told the doctor, I don’t feel very well, and after the doctor looked at me and looked at Vera, she informed me that Vera was going to be born within 30 minutes. So I had 30 minutes to emotionally and mentally prepare. My mom was on the way. They were wheeling me to the OR, and I said, Can you just wait for my mom? She’s in the parking lot. And the doctor said, Nope. And just kept wheeling me. It was that emergent, and my mom did make it. She was able to hold my hand as we took a few steps into the OR, and baby Vera was born. I got to see her for just a second before she was whisked away by a rather large team to the NICU, and then from there, my husband followed her to the NICU, and I started my healing journey. Went over to the postpartum unit, and after a couple of days, I was on magnesium, so I wasn’t stable enough to go see her in the NICU. But after a day or two of me starting to heal, I was actually able to go see her and see my baby girl. She was in the NICU with her CPAP, feeding tube, and IV, and all the different, you know, helpful things that were getting her to be healthy, and that ended up being a 35-day stay in the NICU, and now we are home. She was born at five pounds. She’s now nine pounds, and she is a healthy, growing, happy baby girl.

Jose Torres: Today is also a special day, because today is a reunion for Dr. Sweatha Kasala and Jenna. This is the first time you guys have seen each other after that beautiful moment of recovery at the NICU.  Dr. Kasala, tell us how you have stepped into their lives and started their Journey.

Dr. Sweatha Kasala: It’s very exciting to see Vera and Jenna’s family doing so well at home, thriving, growing. That’s all you know, we want babies after discharge from NICU. And yes, so for any baby to be admitted to NICU is a very, very stressful journey, and I describe it as a roller coaster ride where they’re doing really well and they don’t do well, so they go back and forth, and it’s a very, very long journey. And Vera did a great job throughout, you know, passed through the critical illness in the first 72 hours, required some respiratory support, weaned off, did well, breathing, comfortable, needing some help with the feeding tube. And, you know, she finally got to go home after like 35 days in the NICU. And we are very glad to see her growing and thriving well.

Jose Torres: This NICU center came at a really important time for Jenna, because it’s brand new. It opened up in June, and if it had opened up a little later, the bonding moment between you and little baby Viera, Jenna would have been quite different, right?

Jenna Ream: Yes, it would have been extremely different before the NICU at Baylor Scott and White Round Rock was open; Vera would have had to go to the temple. So quiet, you know, to about two hours away, she would have to go there. And since I wasn’t even able to go visit her in the NICU at the hospital, I definitely would have not been able to go visit her up in Temple for quite a few days. So I am, the word doesn’t even begin to explain how I feel about having her in that wonderful brand new NICU just across the hallway from the postpartum unit. If I had to go to the temple, I don’t, I don’t even know how emotional, emotional I would be today, for sure.

Jose Torres: Here are some pictures you provided for us. Walk us through these pictures.

Jenna Ream:  This is my view of Vera when I first really got to see her. I got to see her without all of the items on her face when she was originally born. But that was for me, a couple of moments at best. And then she went straight to the NICU and got that CPAP machine, which takes over her nose; there’s a cap that is involved, so that takes over her head, and then she has a feeding tube in her mouth. So I wasn’t exactly sure how she looked, necessarily. I didn’t know what her characteristics looked like. But after a few days, we were able to change the CPAP. She got it taken off, and I got to see her beautiful little face, and we got to see her and just cherish her.

Dr. Sweatha Kasala: Whenever a baby comes to NICU, they just have lots of lines and tubes; they have, you know, a PIV, which is a peripheral IV to give some extra fluids and nutrition. And on the face, they have an orange tube, which is an NG tube, to support feedings, because babies who are born premature cannot bottle feed right away, so they need help through the feeding tube. And then in the nose, you would see, initially, some babies need CPAP. So you would see a mask with some gear support on the head, which is like a big covering on the face and on the chest. You see a lot of monitors to monitor their temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing numbers. So to me, when parents are going home or closer to going home, I say these are the things, like one tube comes off at a time, like first the breathing, then the feeding tube, and slowly they come off the monitors. And they also get to spend the night in one of our rooms, which is like a bedroom, very similar to at home, just to make sure our parents are very comfortable caring for the babies without any extra leads or monitors.

Jose Torres: Jenna, walk us through the moment when they told you, All right, we have to bring babies soon. What went through your mind? What were your thoughts?

Jenna Ream: Well, it was, um, very intimidating, for sure. They tell me I had 30 minutes with my husband; it was a regular OB appointment, so at no point did I expect that to be the outcome. Um, my dad was at home watching my three-year-old son. So our first phone call was to my father, saying, Okay, it’s baby day. He had, you know, some anxiety that went with that, because he couldn’t do anything because he was watching our three-year-old. So I’m like, just stay home, keep Milo happy, keep Milo normal. And then my mom, thankfully, was already out on the road, so she was at least close enough to be able to get to us, because we live about 45 minutes away. So she was able to get to us in that 30-minute time frame, just barely, just by a hair. She was able to see me, but we kind of had to spread the word, okay, it’s baby day. Everybody. Prepare for that. My husband did the best that he could. I had 14 nurses working on me. From that point, I was immediately wheeled into labor and delivery, where I had 14 nurses. The doctor told Caleb, Okay, you can have that corner of the room over there. And I had nurses up each arm, two different IVs, all sorts of different medications, all sorts of things I had to sign. So I had to get that all handled. So I didn’t even really have my husband to support me, necessarily. He had, he was just kind of in the background, waving as I got prepared, and then wheeled to the operating table, my husband was able to go into the operating table, so I was very grateful for that. He was able to, you know, be close to me. There were a couple of students who were there, and I said, All right, hug me. And they were like, Okay, since they were actually there, and they were hugging me while I was getting my spinal tap, all the different things. It was those 30 minutes. I mean, it went by very, very quickly. She was here very quickly. She was whisked away very quickly. It was very, very fast, but it turned out perfect. I had such a wonderful team. The doctor who delivered her was perfect. Perfect, wonderful, Dr. Kasala, the people who took her to the NICU. So I just had a lot of faith in that, and I just relaxed. And I said, she’s being taken care of. My husband’s with her. I need to focus on me now. But yeah, it was just trying to figure out quite a bit, very quickly.

Jose Torres: Dr. Kasala, tell us about preeclampsia. Are there warning signs?

Dr. Sweatha Kasala: Preeclampsia is one of the conditions resulting in preterm delivery or births in addition to preterm labor, but it’s one of those conditions that can present any time after 20 weeks of gestation age, and they may not be any alarming symptoms, and they may be symptoms very similar to pregnancy, like headache, abdominal pain, and you know, that’s, you know, one other thing that we as doctors recommend is watching blood pressure. So it’s elevated blood pressure with FX, other systems like vision or liver. So you know, again, there may not be any alarming symptoms. All it can have is elevated blood pressures and some lab abnormalities that would prompt the doctors to go the route of preterm birth and emergent deliveries.

Jose Torres:  Back to the NICU center that just opened up in June here at Baylor Scott and White in Round Rock. It’s a level three. Doctor, tell us about what level three consists of.

Dr. Sweatha Kasala: Yes. So there are different levels for NICU. Level three NICU is where, you know, the NICU can care for a preterm baby as low as 23 weeks of gestation age. It just means providing all the support, breathing support, feeding support, and nutritional support they need to thrive. And you know, it’s a brand new NICU, and we just started seeing babies who are under 35 weeks. And, you know, we are slowly, and Vera was one of the babies in the first month who had a 35-day stay in the NICU.

Jose Torres: Wow. So 35 days. You’ve got to develop a bond with not just a baby, but mom and dad as well.

Esmeralda Zamora: Yes, we’re also discussing how you had to learn the names of the staff in the morning and the night shift. How was that getting to know both shifts of staff members in the NICU?

Jenna Ream: Oh, it was, it was like we were one giant family. I mean, we got to know the nurses. We got to know the neonatologist, nurse practitioners, and we got to know everybody, all the way down to the people who clean the rooms. I knew their names. I said hi to them. I mean, we had relationships with everybody there. And so when it did come to discharge day, it was actually very bittersweet. It was very bittersweet. We were hugging, you know, and very sad. The nurses were very, very sad to see Vera. We had developed quite a bond. And we knew everybody’s, you know, sort of backstory. We knew others, you know, other nurses had kids. We knew their names. We knew how they were doing in school, all sorts of things. Because when you’re sitting there all day and all night long, you have, you know, you get to talking to these people, and we ended up being one huge family, and we all wanted the same thing in common. It’s for Vera to do great. So we supported each other. It was wonderful. I miss them. To this day, I still think about all of the doctors there and nurses, and I go, man, I hope they’re doing okay. There’s been a couple of times where my husband and I, since Vera has been discharged, have brought some donations up to the NICU. We have plans for more donations in the future, mostly just to come say hi. The hardest part is my three-year-old. He really fell in love with some of the nurses, and they fell in love with him, and they’d bring him coloring books, and they would just talk to him, and he would see them through the door, and he would just run full speed ahead give them the biggest hugs, and he’s like, oh, where’s my friend. Where’s my friend? And so there’s been a couple of times he goes, Mommy, can we go back to the hospital? No, baby, not really. So, yeah, I mean, we literally have gone just to do donations, just to kind of say hi and peek in and say hi. How are you guys doing? We miss him. It was really wonderful. It was a wonderful experience.

Jose Torres: And today, like we mentioned earlier, is your first time seeing Dr Kasala again, after so much time away. How does that feel? You know, this little reunion here with the four of you.

Jenna Ream: It feels wonderful. Honestly, it’s great seeing Dr Kasala. I have a lot of pride. I am proud to show her, our big girl, now. As soon as I got to see Dr Kasala, I’m like, look at how big she is. She was, I don’t know if I mentioned this, but she was born at five pounds, and she’s up to nine. So, I mean, like, that’s a really big jump. I think when she was discharged, she was about six or seven pounds. I mean, quite a big jump. And I’m just proud to show Dr. Casala. Look at how well she’s doing. Look at how good everything’s working out for us. And it’s just really exciting.

Esmeralda Zamora: Yeah, let’s not forget about Dad. Dad is also in the room. I’m gonna pull him up there. We can all see him now. So, how does it feel to have this experience and go through this new NICU? What is something you would say to parents who are also in the same situation and are a little bit scared or uneasy about going through that experience that you went through?

Jenna Ream: Oh my gosh. I mean, I’m just so grateful to be able to talk today and hopefully give a mother and father a little bit of confidence when it comes to this. Caleb and I were so beyond scared. I had preeclampsia with my son. He was born at 37 weeks, so he didn’t have to go to the NICU. Thankfully, it was a very smooth delivery, still a little scary, but smooth overall. So we were not prepared for this. We did not expect this, and we both were just straight up scared. Our little baby girl was in the NICU. We didn’t know what that looked like. We didn’t know how long that was. We didn’t know the outcomes. We didn’t know anything. So I want to just give that confidence to any family or mom that I can. It’s okay, you know, it’s very scary. Take it day by day, and the babies will get better. They have a great team. Everybody wants the same thing. They all want your baby to do well. They want your baby to be better. So just, you know, just take that, take it with a little bit of confidence. We’re gonna be okay. It’s all gonna end up fine. End up fine. In you know, feel all the feelings you can feel. It feels like being scared, feeling excited, all the different things, and celebrating the little wins. I know, Dr. Kasala definitely did that. Oh, she drank an extra, you know, point two, or we were in milliliters, you know, 15 milliliters. Oh, she drank this or grams. They’re measured in grams. And we celebrated, you know, 15 grams, 20 grams, when she grew. And so just celebrate all those tiny wins, because that is what the goal is. Every single day. We want them to grow. We want them to eat more. We want them to do better. Celebrate those wins. Feel all the feelings, and definitely lean into your village. If you have one, just let them know. Hey, this is really scary, but you know, we can do this, and you’ll get through it together.

Jose Torres: And Doctor, regarding that point about the bond and the family that people develop at the NICU center, how does that make you feel?

Dr. Sweatha Kasala: Just being in the NICU is very, very stressful for any family. And one thing I would talk about our NICU is we have all private rooms, which is very, very useful, and it makes, you know, parents less stressful, like, you know, like we can have kids in there, and, you know, it’s more bonding time, more skin to skin, more breastfeeding in these private rooms, compared to, you know, other NICUs, where they’re more, you know, open parts with multiple crib spaces. So that’s one thing that’s very good about Round Rock NICU again, having those private rooms like, really helps families spend day and night through the journey. But again, every family is different. Like, you know, they come from different locations. Like, some could be right across the street, and some, like, 45 minutes away, and having these private rooms, like, really helps some of the families.

Jose Torres: Any last words, messages you want to share with families out there?

Jenna Ream: I can definitely say, talking about the rooms. I am so grateful that we had a private room. I was able to figure out pumping, figure out breastfeeding, and privacy, and that was such a huge difference. My husband slept on the pull-out couch that they provided for like two weeks. He was by her side. 24/7, Those tiny things made a huge difference. It was so wonderful. You felt like you were really taken care of. You felt like you knew it was safe, secure. You can do this. You could stick with your kid, and that is just beyond wonderful. It was so great to have that and any family that you know, if a mom’s out there right now, going to be told, Hey, your kid might have to go to the NICU when they’re born. It’ll be okay, especially this round rock, Baylor Scott and White NICU.  Wonderful, wonderful staff, wonderful people. It’s very, very scary. I completely understand that, but it will be okay. You have a great staff with you. You’ll get out on the other side of it, and it will just be a small blip on the baby’s timeline. You know, in years from now, it’ll be just a tiny, tiny blip. It will be okay, especially with the staff at Baylor Scott and White in Round Rock.

Jose Torres: Doctor, any final words or a message you want to get to families out there?

Dr. Sweatha Kasala: Like Jenna said, having those private rooms is really, really helpful for all the families. Like, when I say it’s a NICU admission, I always say, hey, you know, we have a pull-out bed where you can spend days and nights, and there’s no limitation or restriction on that, and it really helps. And I’ve just heard from several families out there that they’re very glad to have a NICU here for babies who need support, you know, for few days to a week, just having it right across like, you know, on the same floor across a postpartum is like very helpful and less stressful than having to have a baby go out elsewhere to other NICUs before opening this NICU. So I’m very glad I’m a part of this team, and we have a wonderful team, nursing team, speech therapist, and, you know, amazing nurse practitioners, and shout out to everybody out there. And I’m very glad that you know Vera is doing so well. And our reunion here was excellent, and I’m glad we did this.

Jose Torres: Vera’s big brother, how is he adjusting to the new change at home?

Jenna Ream: I am so thankful. He’s a wonderful big brother. He loves his baby sister. He constantly wants to hold her, and when she cries, he gets her pacifier and gives it to her. He wants to share all his food. Unfortunately, I can’t. I’m like, it’s a little while until you can do that, brother. But he just wants to share everything with her. He just absolutely adores her and kisses her nonstop. I’m extremely thankful.

Esmeralda Zamora: Thank you for joining us here. It was a pleasure to have you guys on.

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