{"id":382733,"date":"2026-01-02T02:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/382733\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:14:08","slug":"mission-hospital-welcomes-first-2026-baby-doing-well-in-the-nicu-after-early-arrival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/382733\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Hospital welcomes first 2026 baby, doing well in the NICU after early arrival"},"content":{"rendered":"

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 Mission Hospital\u2019s first baby of the new year was born on Jan. 1, 2026, at 3:46 a.m.<\/p>\n

At birth, Jonah Thomas Roberts weighed 4 pounds and 10 ounces and was originally due on Feb. 10, 2026, according to the Mission Health press release. He is in the hospital\u2019s level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and is doing well, according to his nurse, Bailey.<\/p>\n

Baby Roberts was born to parents Shannon Jeffords and Travis Roberts of Marshall. Jonah is Jeffords\u2019 second child, with this being the father\u2019s first baby, according to Mission Health.<\/p>\n

MISSION HEALTH ANNOUNCES VISITOR RESTRICTIONS, CITING HIGH RATE OF FLU IN WNC<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for being so patient and caring,\u201d Jeffords said. \u201cThey made my birth experience stress-free.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the press release, Jeffords went into labor on Tuesday, Dec. 30, at 9:02 p.m., and after her water broke, she was taken to Mission Hospital via EMS, where baby Roberts was safely delivered. Following delivery, he was quickly admitted to the NICU and is now progressing as expected, according to Bailey.<\/p>\n

\"JAN.<\/p>\n

JAN. 1, 2026 – Mission Hospital\u2019s first baby, Jonah Thomas Roberts and his mother{ }Shannon Jeffords of Marshall. (Photo credit: Mission Health)<\/p>\n

MISSION HOSPITAL’S NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT BABIES GET DRESSED IN CHRISTMAS ATTIRE<\/a><\/p>\n

Before the delivery, Jeffords went to Mission Hospital on Nov. 22, and she was dilated to one centimeter. The medical team intervened and successfully prolonged her pregnancy, according to the press release.<\/p>\n

Jonah Thomas was named in honor of both of Travis Roberts\u2019 grandfathers, known as \u201cPapaws.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 Mission Hospital\u2019s first baby of the new year was born on Jan. 1, 2026,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-382733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}