AV Hospital welcomes first baby born in 2016

LANCASTER— While Antelope Valley residents were busy greeting the new year with family and friends, Isabel Hannah Lockshin was greeting the world with her first cries of life.

Born at 12:27 a.m. on Jan. 1,  Isabel is Antelope Valley Hospital’s first baby of 2016.

She weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces; measured 19 inches in length; and was delivered via Cesarean section by attending obstetrician, Dr. Dietmar A. Habeck for Dr. Barry J. Berman, the mother’s obstetrician throughout her pregnancy.

Isabel is the first child born to Steven and Erica Lockshin from Lancaster.

“We were very happy to meet her,” said new mom, Erica. “And we are so grateful for the wonderful care she received at Antelope Valley Hospital on the day of her arrival, and now in the NICU as she gets stronger and we prepare to bring her home.”

Isabel was born at risk for hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, which is a lack of oxygen and blood flow to the brain. Following her delivery, she was transferred to UCLA for body cooling to help prevent neurological damage. Studies show the cooling needs to start within six hours of birth in order to be effective. Isabel was cooled for 72 hours and follow-up testing indicates she is doing very well.

She was recently transported back to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at AVH where she is being attended to by Neonatologist Dr. Murugesa M. Thangavel. AVH recently purchased this specialized cooling equipment and will begin using it in early 2016.

“We are so happy that baby Isabel is doing well and on the road to recovery,” said John Rossfeld, AVH chief executive officer. “We are glad we could take part in getting her off to a good start, and we wish her a lifetime of good health and happiness.”

As the community’s first baby of 2016, Isabel and her parents were given a large gift basket from AVH that included a variety of baby items, such as an infant car seat, blankets, clothes, shoes, supplies, crib accessories and stuffed animals.

Tens of thousands of Antelope Valley residents have been brought into the world at AVH since its doors opened in 1955. More than 5,400 newborns were delivered at AVH’s Women and Infants Pavilion in the past 12 months alone.

The Women and Infants Pavilion features 39 private “Couplet Care” rooms that are furnished with special beds and bassinets so that the mother and baby can stay in the same room until they go home. The facility is also home to a level 3b community NICU equipped with 20 private rooms to care for newborns with special needs as well as three technologically-advanced surgery suites.

In 2015 AVH was designated a Baby-Friendly Birth Facility, which means the hospital has met the gold standard in maternity care operations. For the past five years, AVH has received the Healthgrades® 5-star Maternity Care Excellence Award. This award recognizes hospitals that provide consistent high-quality care for women and their babies during pregnancy, delivery and the first few days after delivery.

[Information via news release from Antelope Valley Hospital.]

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