The gift will transform the hospital’s existing West building, which opened in It was (and continues to be) the only facility in the Bay Area to offer obstetric, neonatal, and developmental medicine services all in one place. The redesign will ensure a more comfortable patient experience and facilitate lifesaving care for complex pregnancies, deliveries, and newborn care. Nearly two-thirds of expectant mothers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford are high-risk, with patients coming from across the state, the nation, and the world for treatment.
“We are honored to partner with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to grow our ability to deliver the strongest possible start for expectant moms and their babies,” says Paul King, CEO and president of Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. “Every year, some 4,400 newborns are welcomed into the world at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. With this gift, the environment before, during, and after birth will match the already extraordinary level of care.”
The new layout will increase the size of the labor and delivery unit to better serve our community, adding capacity for up to 20% more births. The building will also house the hospital’s first-ever dedicated and physically separate unit for high-risk moms who need to be hospitalized for days, weeks, or months before they deliver, ensuring rapid access to a state-of-the-art obstetric delivery suite.
“It’s vital that more mothers and babies have access to Packard Children’s Hospital, in an enhanced environment that supports optimal physical and mental well-being,” says Yasser El-Sayed, MD, division chief of maternal-fetal medicine and obstetrics and the Charles B. and Ann L. Johnson Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and obstetrician-in-chief at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. “This reimagined space will also facilitate impactful scientific research studies, which will accelerate our commitment to advance maternal and infant health in California and beyond.”
The neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) will transition from having large, open rooms—which typically hold up to 10 babies, their parents and care teams, and medical equipment—to private rooms where parents can stay with their babies. Recent research shows that private NICU rooms reduce mortality, shorten hospital stays, lessen parental depression, and lower babies’ infection rates, as well as promote breastfeeding, family bonding, and parental involvement in care.
“I am incredibly proud that our hospital ranks among the top in the nation for neonatology because of the world-class care we provide to our sickest babies,” says David K. Stevenson, MD, neonatologist at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health; senior associate dean for maternal and child health; and Harold K. Faber, Professor of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine. “In designing the hospital, Lucile Salter Packard had the then-revolutionary idea of keeping newborns with other children—and mothers with their babies. That decision catapulted Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford ahead of every other children’s hospital in the country, and this gift could do the same.”
In summary, the following are key enhancements:
- 14 private labor rooms in a new labor and delivery unit
- 9 private antepartum rooms in a specially designed unit
- 51 private postpartum rooms
- 64 private NICU rooms
- 3 new and state-of-the-art obstetric operating rooms
- A calmer setting and streamlined, family-centered journey, starting with a welcoming lobby
This gift brings total giving from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to the hospital to $614 million, making the Bay Area foundation the single largest philanthropic supporter of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and one of the biggest funders of children’s hospitals in the nation.
“The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is delighted to help Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford continue to deliver on my grandmother Lucile’s vision. She believed that all mothers and children deserve the same excellent care,” says Sierra Clark, David and Lucile Packard Foundation trustee and Packard Children’s Hospital board member. “This reimagining of the obstetric and newborn care space will ensure mothers and babies have the best start possible at a beautiful and critical moment. As a family foundation with roots in Silicon Valley, we are especially proud to invest in this facility that will serve our diverse community for generations.”
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and Stanford Medicine Children’s Health are committed to providing excellent and equitable health care for all, regardless of financial circumstances. Ensuring that there are no gaps in care for moms and babies, the West building will remain open during construction. Renovations will be completed in phases, with the goal of concluding the $800 million project by the end of 2028. This lead gift in the fundraising initiative for obstetrics and neonatal facilities has meaningfully expedited the time line for the building redesign.
“I hope that this extraordinary gift will inspire so many others in our community to invest in the health of moms and babies,” says Cynthia Brandt, president and CEO of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health.
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford’s West building is located at 725 Welch Road in Palo Alto, adjacent to the hospital’s Main building, which serves most of the hospital’s pediatric patients, and next door to the Stanford University campus.
“The Stanford community is privileged to have the David and Lucile Packard Foundation as a longstanding champion of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and the community we serve,” says Marc Tessier-Lavigne, president of Stanford University. “Their commitment to the health of mothers and children in the Bay Area—and around the globe—continues to have a transformational impact. We are immensely grateful.”
Media contact
Elizabeth Valente
Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Media Manager
EValente@StanfordChildrens.org
(650) 269-5401
About the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health
The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health is here to unlock philanthropy to transform health for all children and families—in our community and around the world. We support child and maternal health programs at two world-renowned institutions, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and the Stanford University School of Medicine. Learn more at supportLPCH.org.
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