The Incubator

Send us Fan Mail In this moving episode, Dr. Ben Courchia and Dr. Daphna Barbeau are joined by LaToshia Rouse, a certified doula and patient engagement consultant, and Dr. Jessica DiBari from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Together, they share insights from their two Parent Perspective articles in the special issue of Children, which focus on the NICU experience and the critical transition...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dr. Daphna Barbeau sits down with Dr. Richard Shaw (Stanford University) and Dr. Soudabeh Givrad (Weill Cornell Medical College), child psychiatry experts and co-authors of Neurodevelopmental, Mental Health, and Parenting Issues in Preterm Infants . Their conversation shines a spotlight on the often-overlooked intersection of prematurity, neurodevelopment, and fam...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dr. Daphna Barbeau welcomes Dr. Shirley Russ, Senior Project Scientist for the Life Course Translational Research Network, to discuss how life course health development can reframe neonatal care and follow-up after prematurity. Drawing from her extensive work leading the Prematurity Node within the network, Dr. Russ highlights why translating research into practic...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dr. Daphna Barbeau is joined by Dr. Neal Halfon (UCLA) and Dr. Shirley Russ (Cedars-Sinai/UCLA), two leading voices in life course health development, to explore how this framework reshapes our understanding of preterm infant care and follow-up. Together, they discuss their article, Ensuring Optimal Outcomes for Preterm Infants After NICU Discharge: A Life Course...

Send us Fan Mail In this week’s Journal Club, Ben and Daphna review several recent neonatal studies with direct implications for practice. They begin with the BORN trial from Italy, which investigated whether transfusing preterm infants with cord blood–derived red blood cells, rather than adult donor blood, could reduce severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). While the intention-to-treat analysis...

Send us Fan Mail Dopamine versus epinephrine for neonatal septic shock: an open labeled, randomized controlled trial. Singh G, Bhaskar V, Batra P, Gupta P.J Perinatol. 2025 Aug 28. doi: 10.1038/s41372-025-02399-7. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40877444 EBNEO Commentary: Review of the 'Norepinephrine Versus Dopamine for Septic Shock in Neonates: A Randomised Controlled Trial'. Altit G.Acta...

Send us Fan Mail Cord red blood cell transfusions for severe retinopathy in preterm neonates in Italy: a multicenter randomized controlled trial. Teofili L, Papacci P, Pellegrino C, Dani C, Cresi F, Remaschi G, Ansaldi G, Giannantonio C, Campagnoli MF, Vania B, Fabbri M, de Vera d' Aragona RP, Molisso A, Beccastrini E, Dragonetti A, Pasciuto T, Gabbriellini S, Baroni S, Serrao F, Purcaro V, R...

Send us Fan Mail Outcomes of Preterm Infants Born at 22 to 23 Weeks' Gestation in 11 International Neonatal Networks. Isayama T, Norman M, Kusuda S, Reichman B, Lehtonen L, Lui K, Adams M, Vento Torres M, Filippi L, Battin M, Guinsburg R, Modi N, Håkansson S, Klinger G, de Almeida MF, Helenius K, Bassler D, Su YC, Shah PS; International Network for Evaluation of Outcomes (iNeo) Investigators....

Send us Fan Mail Respiratory Targets Associated With Lung Aeration During Delivery Room Resuscitation of Preterm Neonates. Rub DM, Hsu JY, Weinberg DD, Felix M, Nadkarni VM, Te Pas AB, Kuypers KLAM, Davis PG, Ratcliffe SJ, Kirpalani HM, Foglia EE.JAMA Pediatr. 2025 Aug 11:e252521. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.2521. Online ahead of print. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questio...

Send us Fan Mail Atropine Versus Placebo for Neonatal Nonemergent Intubation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Afifi J, El-Naggar W, Hatfield T, Sandila N, Baier J, Narvey M.J Pediatr. 2025 Jul 9;286:114719. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2025.114719. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40645282 Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. Yo...

Send us Fan Mail Screening for pulmonary hypertension in preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia: when, how often and does it matter? Gentle SJ, Carlo WA, Ambalavanan N.Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2025 Sep 5:fetalneonatal-2024-328405. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2024-328405. Online ahead of print. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to o...

Send us Fan Mail Continuous glucose monitoring in a neonate with hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia and ABCC8 gene mutation. Iwańczyk P, Majewska A, Issat T, Hoffman-Zacharska D, Krajewski P, Lipska-Karpińska K.Endocrinol Diabetes Metab Case Rep. 2025 Jun 5;2025(2):e250002. doi: 10.1530/EDM-25-0002. Print 2025 Apr 1. Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions t...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Incubator Podcast, Ben and Daphna sit down with Dr. Dena Hubbard, neonatologist and Director of Quality at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital’s NICU. Dr. Hubbard is widely recognized for her leadership in trauma-informed care, physician well-being, and advocacy work within the American Academy of Pediatrics. She shares her journey from private practice to becomi...

Send us Fan Mail In this Tech Tuesday episode, Ben speaks with Jason Beyer, Business Unit Leader for the Care Franchise at Chiesi USA, about the development of NeoCarePal, a free mobile app designed to simplify daily workflows in the NICU. NeoCarePal brings together a curated collection of the most commonly used neonatal calculators and formulas in one easy-to-use platform. Instead of searching ac...

Send us Fan Mail In this Tech Tuesday episode, Ben speaks with Laurence Gulliver, General Manager for Humidification at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. With nearly two decades at the company and a background in mechanical engineering and product development, Laurence has helped guide innovations that have shaped respiratory support for neonatal, pediatric, and adult patients worldwide. The convers...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Incubator Podcast, Dr. Guilherme Sant’Anna, Professor of Pediatrics at McGill University, joins Ben and Daphna to discuss his team’s work on implementing an early bubble CPAP protocol in the delivery room. Although CPAP has long been considered standard practice for preterm infants, Dr. Sant’Anna explains why intubation rates remain high in the most immature...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Incubator Podcast, we welcome Dr. Cindy McEvoy, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Neonatal Research at OHSU, to discuss her work on the use of extended CPAP in preterm infants. CPAP has long been a cornerstone of neonatal care, but how long should stable infants remain on support? Dr. McEvoy shares findings from two randomized controlled trials that ex...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Incubator Podcast, we sit down with Dr. David Askenazi, Dr. Heidi Steflik, and Dr. Kimmy Vuong to explore the latest research and practice shifts in neonatal nephrology. The discussion begins with the often-overlooked role of the kidney in the NICU and why kidney health has direct implications for outcomes far beyond discharge. The group reviews three recent...

Send us Fan Mail Association of patent ductus arteriosus treatment in extremely low gestational age neonates with two year kidney outcomes: a secondary analysis of the preterm erythropoietin neuroprotection trial (PENUT). Condit PE, Guillet R, Kaluarachchi D, Griffin RL, Menon S, Askenazi DJ, Harer MW.BMC Nephrol. 2025 Mar 19;26(1):138. doi: 10.1186/s12882-025-04065-8.PMID: 40108500 Free PMC artic...

Send us Fan Mail Kidney Health Monitoring in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Graduates: A Modified Delphi Consensus Statement. Starr MC, Harer MW, Steflik HJ, Gorga S, Ambalavanan N, Beck TM, Chaudhry PM, Chmielewski JL, Defreitas MJ, Fuhrman DY, Hanna M, Joseph C, Kwiatkowski DM, Krawczeski CD, Liberio BM, Menon S, Mohamed TH, Rumpel JA, Sanderson KR, Schuh MP, Segar JL, Slagle CL, Soranno DE, Vuong...

Send us Fan Mail Reducing NICU ventilator days by preventing fluid overload with the CAN-U-P-LOTS standardized bundle. Askenazi DJ, Gordon L, Griffin R, Collins M, Black A, Ambalavanan N, Webb T, Mathis M, Short K, Umberger A, Travers C.Pediatr Res. 2025 Jul 11. doi: 10.1038/s41390-025-04078-x. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40646283 Support the show As always, feel free to send us questions, commen...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Tim Van Hasselt, who is now a NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer and Neonatal Subspeciality Registrar (fellow-equivalent) at the University of Leicester, UK..  Tim describes his training in the UK, his pathway to doing his PhD in investigating the impact of preterm birth on readmissions to the PICU. We talk about how he went abo...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Journal Club, we review five important studies with direct implications for your work in the NICU. First, we examine the newly released third-generation Fenton growth charts—how do they differ from previous versions, and what do they reveal about how we may have underestimated early growth trajectories in preterm infants? Next, we evaluate the association between reti...

Send us Fan Mail Whole-Body Hypothermia for Neonatal Encephalopathy in Preterm Infants 33 to 35 Weeks' Gestation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Faix RG, Laptook AR, Shankaran S, Eggleston B, Chowdhury D, Heyne RJ, Das A, Pedroza C, Tyson JE, Wusthoff C, Bonifacio SL, Sánchez PJ, Yoder BA, Laughon MM, Vasil DM, Van Meurs KP, Crawford MM, Higgins RD, Poindexter BB, Colaizy TT, Hamrick SEG, Chala...

Send us Fan Mail Fenton Third-Generation Growth Charts of Preterm Infants Without Abnormal Fetal Growth: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Fenton TR, Elmrayed S, Alshaikh BN.Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2025 Jun 19. doi: 10.1111/ppe.70035. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40534585 Review. Birth weight and head circumference for 22-29 weeks gestation neonates from an international cohort. Fenton TR...