The University of Alabama at Birmingham has received eight 2024 Women’s Choice Awards designations for women’s health practice areas.

Each January, National Birth Defects Awareness Month is observed to raise awareness, help improve the health of people with these conditions, and expand the networks of support. Most birth defects are not preventable, and many are critical conditions that can cause lifelong challenges. However, thanks to medical advances in diagnosis and treatment, women and their babies now receive better care than ever before.

Each January, Cervical Cancer Awareness Month calls attention to important facts about a type of cancer that is diagnosed in about 14,000 women in the United States annually and is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide.

Premature and sick newborns are at high risk of having developmental issues that can affect their language and reading skills. UAB Medicine and Children’s of Alabama launched the NICU Bookworms reading program in 2021 to help reduce these deficits, increase parent-infant bonding and encourage shared reading starting at birth for all babies.

Girl Talk, led by nurses at the UAB Women & Infants Center (WIC), is a safe space for group learning and conversations about puberty that is available for girls ages 8-12 and their mothers (or a trusted adult).

Immunotherapy is a common type of treatment that uses the patient’s own immune system to fight cancer and other diseases. Gynecologic cancers are treated in different ways, but immunotherapy is becoming more common in treating cervical cancer, uterine (endometrial) cancer, and other cancers that start in women’s reproductive organs. At the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB, physicians and researchers are improving the use of certain immunotherapies, and many patients are seeing better treatment results.

Emily Boydston, RN, has truly unique insight into being a dedicated uterus transplant coordinator – she’s the only one in the United States so far. It’s been a big year for her and her patients, given that the uterus transplant program at the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute (CTI) recently delivered its first baby born from a uterus transplant pregnancy outside of a clinical trial.

UAB Medicine and Children’s of Alabama launched the NICU Bookworms reading program in 2021 to help reduce developmental problems in sick and premature babies, and to increase parent-infant bonding. The program has been a big success for families in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) at both hospitals through finding new ways to provide books and encourage shared reading.

Every year in the United States, 3,500 infants between the ages of one month and one year die tragically – while sleeping – from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) or sudden unexpected infant death (SUID). These deaths are occurring in Black babies at twice the rate of white babies, and Alabama has one of the highest infant death rates in the country.

Date: Saturday, September 16, 2023 Time: 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM Location: Bradley Lecture Center, located at Children's of Alabama 1600 5th Ave South Birmingham, AL 35233

We are pleased to announce that UAB Medicine’s obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) specialty was ranked the No. 13 best program of its kind nationally in the 2023-2024 Best Hospitals rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

UAB Women and Infants Center (WIC) has expanded its meal provision for mothers who are breastfeeding their infants during a stay in UAB’s Regional Newborn Intensive Care Unit (RNICU) and Continuing Care Nursery (CCN). Meals for mothers and their families have been provided on a limited basis in the past through a partnership with the March of Dimes Family Support Program. The expansion of this program by UAB Food and Nutrition Services now ensures that meals are available for mothers six days a week.