Mount Sinai Hospital hopes to create 'World's Largest Baby Book'

Mount Sinai Hospital hopes to build the world's largest online baby book in time for its 100th anniversary in 2023.

Thebook was launched by Sinai Health Foundation on Family Day this year. So far, ithas collected close to 2,000 submissions of baby photos and stories, some dating back as far as 1929.

Alana Robertson's son, Deacon, was born at the hospital three years ago and is among the babies featured in the book.

Robertson said she was just over 20 weeks pregnant when Deacon was diagnosed with spinabifida in utero. She knew fetal spinabifida surgery existed in the United States, and wanted to get access to it herself.

"When I went to Mount Sinai, I actually said to the physicians, 'How do I get down to the States because I know they're doing it there,'" Robertson said.

"And they were like, 'Well, actually, we do it here.'"

Robertson was the third woman in Canada to receive in-utero spina bifida surgery. Mount Sinai is the only hospital in Canada that offers the treatment.

Today, she said, Deacon is a healthy three-year-old who loves to move.

Robertson said adding her story to the book was a way to not only recognize the health-care workers who helped her and her son, but also to let other expectingparents know they aren't alone.

"Our experience is rare, and we didn't really know where to turn at the time," she said. "Having our story be out there for other people to say, 'Oh, that's similar to me,' means a lot to me."

Baby book signifies 'joyful milestone'

The Sinai Health Foundation hopes to collect 5,000 baby book submissions by the end of the year.

Dr. Cindy Maxwell, who works with high-risk pregnancies like Robertson's every day as the division head of maternal-fetal medicine at Sinai Health,.says the baby book is the perfect way to honour the lives that begin within the hospital's walls.

"Building healthy families and helping healthy babies come into the world is really our mission, and the 'World's Biggest Baby Book' will help mark that," said Maxwell, who's delivered thousands of babies in her 17 years at Mount Sinai.

"I think the baby book really signifies a joyful milestone in the history of Sinai health."