Hello friends 👋 This week on The Incubator Podcast, Ben and Daphna dig into four studies testing what the evidence supports at the bedside. They open with the 24-month BeNeDuctus follow-up, where expectant management and early ibuprofen for PDA yield identical survival without neurodevelopmental impairment. Daphna then presents the Nourish trial, finding individually targeted milk fortification did not improve growth, body composition, or brain MRI outcomes. Next, a Dutch st

Hello friends 👋 Your patient's twins were just diagnosed with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. Do you know what the next six months actually look like for that family? On this episode of Beyond the Beeps, Leah sits down with Lisa Zahakos, physician assistant, mother of identical twins Peter and Maurice, and founder of Heart Reserve, for a raw, detailed walk through a TTTS pregnancy, fetal laser surgery, and a NICU stay that redefined how she understands medicine. Lisa shar

Hello friends 👋 Feeding in the NICU is rarely one person's job, yet the language around it changes from nurse to therapist to physician to parent. In this Tech Tuesday episode, Ben and Daphna sit down with Lisa Kleinz and Erin Lesage of Dr. Brown's Medical to unpack feeding together, a philosophy built on team approach, family at the center, and feeding that begins on day one rather than at first bottle. They discuss what separates cue-based feeding from a truly standardized

Hello friends 👋 Ben sits down with Dr. Shetal Shah and AAP federal advocacy director Stephanie Glier to unpack HR1, the sweeping reconciliation bill that could cut $1.15 trillion in federal Medicaid spending over the next decade. With 40% of US births and up to 65% of NICU graduates covered by Medicaid, the stakes for neonatology are enormous. Shetal and Stephanie break down state directed payments, provider taxes, shortened retroactive coverage windows, and new work require

Hello friends 👋 This week on The Incubator Podcast, Ben and Daphna dig into four studies reshaping bedside decisions. They open questioning whether routine DAT screening for ABO and RhD incompatibility still earns its place, finding transcutaneous bilirubin alone predicts phototherapy need just as well. Next, a Swedish national registry of over two million births links missed intramuscular vitamin K, and rising oral substitution, to a near-doubling of bleeding and intracrani

Hello friends 👋 In this episode, Misty and Betsy sit down with Dr. Brian Kalish, a neonatologist-neuroscientist at Boston Children's Hospital, for a wide-ranging conversation on building a career at the intersection of fetal and neonatal brain injury research. Brian traces his path from public health and pediatric surgery to neuroscience, describes what "technical courage" means in the lab, and shares the story behind his move to SickKids Toronto and back. He discusses his l

Hello friends 👋 In this episode of From the Heart, Drs. Nim Goldshtrom and Adrianne Bischoff talk with Dr. Kristin Elgersma, a nurse-researcher whose path into neonatal nutrition began at her son's bedside in a cardiac ICU. A former concert pianist turned nurse-researcher, Kristin asked a question no one had: does human milk change outcomes for babies with congenital heart disease? Her multicenter PC4 study of day-by-day data from over 800 infants across 25 centers found no

Hello friends 👋 In this episode of From the Heart, Dr. Nim Goldshtrom and Dr. Adrianne Bischoff dissect a hemodynamics consult that changes shape twice in 48 hours. A 30-week recipient twin from twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome presents with biventricular dysfunction and suprasystemic pulmonary hypertension, starts on epinephrine and milrinone, and stabilizes. Then overnight, everything falls apart: hypotension, rising lactate, falling urine output. Only on repeat echo does

Disclosure: Dr. Wanda Barfield appeared on this episode in her personal capacity. The views she expresses are her own and do not represent the official positions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. Hello friends 👋 The American Academy of Pediatrics has never had a neonatologist as president. This September, that could change. In this special episode, Ben sits down with Dr. Wanda Barf

Hello friends 👋 This week's Journal Club. Monday, nasal CPAP versus NIPPV as the bridge to minimally invasive surfactant in infants born before 30 weeks, first author Dr. Hui Zhang. Tuesday, the PAEAN trial on high-dose erythropoietin for neonatal HIE, led by Dr. Helen Liley. Wednesday, extended infusion versus bolus feeding for weight gain in extremely-low-birth-weight infants, from Dr. Haribalakrishna Balasubramanian's team in India. Thursday, the DROP-ROP trial, testing d

Hello friends 👋 What does it take to turn a family's darkest days in the NICU into a global mission of hope? In this episode of Beyond the Beeps, host Leah Jayanetti talks with Isabelle Neza, founder of Premi Global Impact (PGI), about the sudden, terrifying arrival of her son Asher at 23 weeks gestation in Dallas, Texas, far from her family's home in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Isabelle shares how a NICU nurse's story, a mentor's soup, and a community she'd known for

Hello friends 👋 What happens when a neonatology fellow decides that respectful care can't stop with the mother, it has to include the newborn too? On this episode of Rupa's Fellows Friday, Rupa talks with Dr. Henna Shaikh, a third-year neonatology fellow at Seattle Children's Hospital and the University of Washington, about her path through a CHOP Global Health Fellowship, a hospitalist year, and two years living and working in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Shaikh describes he

Hello friends 👋 What happens when a mom's immune system loses its tolerance for pregnancy, and a physician-scientist builds an entire lab, and career, around figuring out why? On this episode of At the Bench, hosts Ben Fensterheim and David McCulley sit down with Dr. Jackie Lajiness, a neonatologist and physician-scientist at Indiana University. Dr. Lajiness traces her path from an undergraduate laser spectroscopy lab to an MD-PhD, and shares her current research using a mou

Hello friends 👋 A term newborn looks fine on mom's chest, then crashes within minutes. By the time transport arrives, there's a pH of 6.9, a lactate over 10, and a baby already intubated and on surfactant. Is this pulmonary hypertension, congenital heart disease, or something else entirely? In this episode of From the Heart, It's Complicated, Dr. Adrianne Bischoff and Dr. Nim Goldshtrom work through a real, complex neonatal cardiac case in real time, the kind of case that ke

Hello friends 👋 Why does reading in the NICU still feel optional when the evidence says otherwise? Daphna sits down with Paige Pedroli, author of the Nic Zoo book and two-time NICU mom, and Dr. Raquel Garcia, a craniofacial and feeding specialist, to unpack why reading to preterm and critically ill infants belongs alongside kangaroo care as neuropromotive, not just neuroprotective. They cover the evidence behind auditory stimulation and language outcomes, why reading gives o

Hello friends 👋 Is your EMR actually built for neonatology, or just retrofitted to survive it? Ben sits down with Dr. Lindsey Knake, clinical assistant professor and associate chief health information officer at the University of Iowa, to talk AI in the NICU. They cover the real difference between Epic's homegrown tools and third-party options like Evidently and NABLA, why a six-month hospital stay breaks most chart summarization tools, and how ambient AI is starting to chan

Hello friends 👋 The full week of Journal Club in one place. Monday, the PLaNT trial of prophylactic CPAP for late preterm infants born by cesarean, with senior author Dr. Edgardo Szyld. Tuesday, whether parental holding during therapeutic hypothermia changes feeding and length of stay. Wednesday, the Connection Study, the first live biotherapeutic product tested under an IND, and what it means for probiotics returning to the NICU. Thursday, a handheld light probe that reads

Hello friends 👋 In this episode, Mbozu and Shelly-Ann sit down with Dr. Franck Houndjahoue to explore what it takes to strengthen newborn care in humanitarian and post-conflict settings. Drawing on nearly a decade of experience in the Central African Republic and other low-resource contexts, Dr. Houndjahoue shares how rebuilding newborn services requires far more than equipment: it depends on partnerships, training, data, and local leadership. Link to episode on youtube:...

Hello friends 👋 When is surfactant "early," and when is it too early, or too late? In this second installment of our two-part series with the Neonatal Resuscitation Symposium, Ben Courchia sits down with Dr. Roger Soll, a leading voice in surfactant research since the 1980s, to trace how our thinking on timing has evolved, from aggressive prophylactic dosing to selective rescue therapy to today's less invasive approaches like LISA and SALSA. Dr. Soll unpacks why head-to-head

Hello friends 👋 What does it take to feel truly seen during one of the most vulnerable moments of your life? In this episode of Beyond the Beeps, host Leah Jayanetti sits down with Val Butler, manager of AIME (the Alliance for Infant Maternal Health) in Miami-Dade County. Val shares her own NICU story, the surprise of learning her nearly ten-pound daughter needed NICU care, and the grace it took to sit with not knowing. She and Leah unpack what made her care team different: