Newborn Care

Congratulations! You are about to have a baby! What a wonderfully exciting time of your life! 

Whether this is your first child or your fifth, having a child can sometimes be anxiety-provoking when you don’t know what to expect. Once you have started the laboring process or if you have a scheduled admission, your obstetrician and the labor and delivery team will walk you through the delivery process. Once your child has been born, he or she will be evaluated by a newborn specialist - this could be a neonatologist, a neonatal nurse practitioner, a newborn hospitalist, or a pediatrician.

It is important for your baby to be seen daily while mom and baby are still in the hospital. Breastfeeding can sometimes be challenging, so monitoring parameters like baby’s weight and diapers with urine and stool are important in assessing how well the baby is feeding. Monitoring bilirubin levels also help in assessing risk for jaundice.

Dr. Michelle Suhendra currently has admitting privileges at Houston Methodist The Woodlands. If you are delivering at Houston Methodist The Woodlands, ask for Dr. Michelle Suhendra to be assigned as the pediatrician on your baby’s chart and she will gladly see your newborn while you are in the hospital! If you are delivering at another hospital, your baby will be seen by one of that hospital’s newborn hospitalists.