12:26pm | Baby Riley Katherine Skelly arrived about two weeks early, just in time to become the first baby born in 2012 at the Center for Women at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach. Coming into the world at 12:45 a.m. at 19 inches and 6 pounds, she is the second child of Jamee and Erick Skelly. The baby’s 22-month-old brother, Shane; her mother, and many relatives were also born here.
“We’re excited to have the city’s first baby of the year,” says proud mother Jamee, who received a special “First Baby Basket” from the staff at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach, which shares a hospital campus with Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.
The Center for Women at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach has been honored by organizations as the “Safest Place to Have a Baby,” thanks to its comprehensive and nationally recognized perinatal, neonatal and obstetrics program which averages about 6,000 newborns each year. It also includes one of the nation’s largest neonatal intensive care units which annually care for more than 1,000 fragile newborns.
Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach was just listed among the Top 10 Largest Children’s Hospitals in the United States. Ranked by number of staffed beds based on the latest government reports and appearing in the Dec. 19, 2011 issue of Modern Healthcare magazine, Miller Children’s ranked sixth in number of admissions nationwide and was the only Southern California children’s hospital listed in the top 10.