Kaweah Health welcomes 2021 New Year's babies

VISALIA, CA – Kaweah Health Medical Center has delivered its first babies of 2021.

As of 4:30 p.m., nine babies had been delivered at Kaweah Health Medical Center in Visalia. The New Year baby was Joseph Escamilla, born at 4:17 a.m. at the Visalia hospital. He weighed in at 6 pounds, 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches in length. His parents are Jose Escamilla and Hilda Magaña, of Farmersville.

While Joseph’s parents were not expecting his arrival on New Year’s Day, they said his birth was a great start to 2021. “Hopefully it’s a better year than last year,” said Hilda, who unfortunately lost a number of friends to COVID-19 in 2020. “2020 was a sad year.”

For being the New Year baby at Kaweah Health Medical Center, Escamilla received a New Year’s diaper cake from nurses at the hospital. Kaweah Health offered parents of those born on the first day of the year the opportunity to have their baby participate in a New Year’s photo shoot in celebration of 2021’s arrival.

Elizabeth Gonzalez watched as her newborn son Eric Rosales, Jr. was photographed wearing a small New Year’s hat. The baby, who is named after his father Eric Rosales, was born at 4:45 a.m. “It was exciting to watch. It made me really happy,” she said. “He is our new beginning. 2020 was rough on everybody, but it was rough on us, too. 2021 started off pretty good, so let’s just hope we keep going that way.”

Kaweah Health's Family Birthing Center provides maternity and infant health care. It offers the community a 21-bed labor and delivery unit, a 42-bed postpartum unit, the largest labor/delivery triage area in Tulare County, anesthesiologists Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialists for high-risk deliveries, along with a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) staffed by physicians from Valley Children’s Medical Group. Kaweah Health's NICU is community designated by California Children’s Services as providing care for infants as early as 26-weeks gestation and has a neonatologist and pediatric hospitalist on site 24/7.

Kaweah Health is a publicly-owned community healthcare organization that provides comprehensive health services to the greater Visalia region and Tulare County. With over 5,000 dedicated medical professionals and employees, Kaweah Health offers state-of-the-art medicine, high-quality preventive services and specialized health centers and clinics. For more information, visit www.kaweahdelta.org.