Newborns in Brookwood Baptist Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit spent this week celebrating their first Halloween in tiny costumes, with a 17-photo gallery released showing the hospital’s youngest patients dressed up for the holiday. The NICU team put together special costumes for the babies, according to a photo gallery courtesy of Baptist Health Brookwood Hospital.
The gallery, authored by Drew Hyatt and published by WBMA, shows the Birmingham hospital’s NICU babies marking their first Halloween in the hospital. It follows a pattern Brookwood staff have kept up in past years: in 2024, the NICU dressed up and created costumes for dozens of newborn babies, according to a report from WBRC.
A Tradition Built Around Each Family
WBRC’s earlier report described the Halloween costumes as a yearly tradition at Brookwood, and said the hospital’s team tries to customize each costume based on a patient’s family or personality rather than handing out something generic. In one example from that 2024 coverage, staff dressed new mother Emily Gomez’s newborn as Frida Kahlo specifically to celebrate Gomez’s Hispanic heritage — a small but personal touch during what is often a stressful stay for families with babies in intensive care.
That approach — tailoring costumes to the people behind each isolette — has become something of a signature for the unit, even as the specific looks change year to year. The photos released this week continue that tradition, though the gallery itself does not detail which costumes or characters appear among this year’s newborns.
Not the Only NICU Dressing Up Its Smallest Patients
Brookwood isn’t the only Birmingham-area NICU putting its newborns in costume for the holiday. In 2024, Grandview Medical Center shared its own photos of NICU babies dressed up for their first Halloween, according to a separate report from WBMA’s parent site. Those costumes ranged from peas in a pod to pirates, princesses, lions, and Harry Potter characters, giving families across Jefferson County their own set of keepsake images from inside the unit.
For parents navigating a NICU stay, a holiday like Halloween can offer a rare moment of normalcy amid rounds, monitors, and uncertainty. Brookwood’s latest gallery adds another entry to that tradition, giving this year’s newest Birmingham arrivals their own costumed milestone before they ever leave the hospital.
