New mother was concerned about a potentially serious complication, but the care team at Inspira...
Read MoreWritten by Jennifer Auer and originally published in Jersey Family Fun
For the past few months, we have been sharing with you the 10 reasons to deliver your baby at Inspira Medical Centers in South Jersey, along with more detailed information about their services for new and expecting moms. We’ve been waiting in eager anticipation for them to ‘deliver’ a new hospital. Well ‘deliver’ they have!
The NEW Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill is few week away from opening.
I am thrilled that our partnership with Inspira allowed me to be one of the first to see their new hospital in South Jersey – Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill.
Health+ Technology Bar
The third Inspira Health+ technology bar will be in the lobby of the hospital. At the bar, Inspira provides friendly technology support – FREE. The goal is to teach you how technology, such as smart phones and wearable devices, can help you manage and improve your health. This could include everything from tracking your daily fitness activities to do use you how technology, such as smart phones and wearable devices, can help you manage and improve your health. This could include everything from tracking your daily fitness activities to the use a smart blood pressure monitor that can send your physician or health coach your results with the push of a button.
State-of-the-Art Delivery Rooms with Smart Technology
At the new Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill, the Labor, Delivery, Recovery, and Postpartum (LDRP) rooms were designed with moms in mind. This is not your regular labor and delivery room. Instead, each LDRP room is a welcoming maternity suite where expecting moms can feel comfortable throughout their maternity stay.
When it comes to creating the rooms, Inspira Health’s experienced maternity team members wanted to create a space that could provide the most advanced care while also being family centered. And to no one’s surprise, Inspira Health delivered. When you prepare for a birthing experience at Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill, you’re creating an experience that you own, with a medical team that is ready to support you, and it’s all done from your very own private room. “The room a patient gets admitted into the same room where she’ll experience childbirth and postpartum care” says Dr. Josephine Urbina, OB/GYN for Inspira Medical Group.
Each LDPR Room includes:
- Beautiful décor, natural lighting, large open spaces, medical equipment tucked away behind walls. You might just forget you’re in a hospital room!
- Sleeping accommodations for a support person. The in-room couch has cushions that flip, allowing space for a partner or loved one to comfortably sleep.
- Room for siblings and family members to visit. Wait until you see how spacious the rooms are.
- In-room refrigerator that be used for mother’s pumped breastmilk.
- Jet tub for pain relief and relaxation during labor.
- Private bathroom
- Birthing balls, bars, and other items to assist with labor.
- Large, beautiful windows with special tinting. When the blinds are down, patients can see out, but no one can see in.
- In-room baby bassinet – moms are encouraged to keep their babies with them in their LDPR rooms.
- Wireless fetal monitoring – YES! Wireless! No more cords confining you to a bed while you’re in labor. Laboring moms can move about the room and be comfortable as they move through the stages of labor.
- A baby tub so moms can learn how to give that first bath with a nurse by her side.
- Smart Room Technology
What is Smart Room Technology?
Smart Room technology starts with a bedside keyboard and an in-room TV. As a staff member enters the room, the TV will project the identity of that staff member. Moms don’t have to wait and see who is entering their room – instead they’ll be able to see it on the screen.
The same TV can show moms educational programs based on her interest or doctor’s recommendations. She can also log her questions for the doctors and medical team with the Smart Room technology. No more having to remember that question that popped into your head during your 3m feeding. One the fun side, mom can also watch TV to catch up on her favorite Netflix shows.
The Smart Room technology can be accessed with the bedside keyboard or remote. There are no additional charges for using the Smart Room technology.
3 waiting areas
Waiting areas? Impressive? Yes! Yes, waiting rooms can be impressive and helpful to moms. Simply knowing your family members are comfortable helps relieve anxiety for expecting mothers. What’s more, the Inspira waiting areas are meant to be peaceful, beautiful, and calming. You won’t see hospital beds being wheeled past you or doctors and nurses rushing to surgeries.
Main floor waiting area
One of the waiting areas with seating for family members is on the main floor, one level below the Maternity Center. It’s conveniently located just a few steps from the gift shop and café.
Second floor waiting area
The second floor has a waiting area at the top of the stairs just outside the doors to the Maternity Center. There’s ample seating, a coffee station, plenty of outlets, and a faux fireplace. What else could a family member want while patiently awaiting the arrival of the newest family member?
Labor and delivery family waiting room
There is also a family waiting room in the Maternity Center itself. Let’s say mom needs a few minutes of rest or privacy. Waiting family members are able to use this space to wait till mom is ready for visitors again.
Operating room for C-Sections
Inspira offers gentle C-sections, and the Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill operating room in the Maternity Center is set up for that. All the equipment that could be needed is in the operating room, so the medical team never has to leave the room one a C-section starts.
Doctors and nurses work together to make sure moms and dads see their baby right away. And every effort is made to make sure there is skin-to-skin contact between mother and child before each of them leave the room. Not only that but ‘your’ nurse will be right there by your side for your C-section.
Nursery for babies who need advanced care
As a young mom with a baby who needed advanced care, being separated from my son was the worst feeling. I wanted to hold him and form our bond, not just watch him from a nursery filled with other bassinets.
One of the things that makes Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill different from other childbirth centers is their Neonatal Intermediate Care Unit. The nursery for babies who need advanced care offers private rooms, one for each newborn that needs extra medical care. That’s not all – the hospital team even made sure to install special flooring to keep the nursery extra quiet and built a larger room in the event there are twin newborns in need of it.
Dr. Noeet Elitsur, a neonatologist from Nemours Children's Health working in partnership with Inspira says, “I’m so excited about the design of the Neonatal Intermediate Care Nursery in the new hospital. Each room is private and allows for the mothers to stay in the same room with their babies. This is an incredible set up as it promotes maternal and infant bonding as well as encourages continued breast-feeding. There is even a breastmilk refrigerator and bottle warmer in each room!”
The rooms offer a couch bed, reclining chair, small fridge, and the same Smart Room technology.
Dr. Elitsur continued, “the private rooms are also great because as a new mother, your baby’s health and well-being is a huge stressor, and for the mothers to be actively involved in their baby’s care can be therapeutic. We encourage all parents to be involved in their baby’s care as much as possible and this set-up allows for that.”
Most of us don’t plan for our child do you need medical care after birth. Even with preeclampsia, I didn’t know to plan in case my son needed extra medical care and yet he did. I’d roll myself down the hallway in a wheelchair just to see him. Inspira moms don’t have to go through that. With these private rooms, moms can stay with their babies even if mom has been discharged from the hospital. Partners can also stay in support moms or give mom a rest.
More thoughts from Dr. Elitsur
We mentioned that many parents don’t plan for their baby to need medical care after birth. It’s often a surprise. Dr. Elitsur says, “This situation is not in anybody’s birth plan. This is why it’s so important to choose a hospital that has access to advanced neonatal care, should any unexpected problems arise. At Inspira, we have Nemours physicians available 24/7 for any emergencies. We are also present at high risk and C-section deliveries for evaluation of the baby. Ideally, you don’t want to use us during your labor and delivery experience; however, knowing that we are available is a good thing. You want to be sure that you and your baby have a positive experience, as well as a safe experience, when delivering your baby.”
The Inspira team also felt strongly that every mom should know that even if her birth experience doesn’t go as planned, that does not mean she has to give up control. Moms still OWN their pregnancy.
Pediatric Emergency Department
The Maternity Center at Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill isn’t the only thing that makes the newest hospital in South Jersey different. There’s a difference in the emergency department as well that moms will appreciate. The kids have their own emergency room and emergency room waiting area in the Pediatric Emergency Department. Visiting the emergency department in and of itself can be scary to kids. Visiting it and hearing and seeing grown-up medical issues can make the experience scarier. Instead, Inspira has a separate, peaceful area for kids to wait their turn and receive care.
Once admitted, children will be greeted with silly pictures of happy dogs and cared for in a private room. If needed, there is a separate consultation room where parents can speak with doctors privately. There’s also an internal family waiting room where other family members can wait closer to you and your child.
Pediatrics unit
Should your child need to be admitted for observation or a longer stay, take comfort in knowing that the pediatric unit is a hybrid unit that works closely with the Pediatric Emergency department. In many cases, the nurse that your child saw in the emergency room will be the same nurse that cares for him/her in the pediatric unit.
More about the Nemours Children's Health Pediatrics partnership with Inspira Medical Centers from Dr. Haytham Hamwi, Pediatric Hospitalist from Nemours Children's Health.
“Nemours is committed to bringing pediatric expertise to South Jersey,” says Dr. Hamwi. “We have a very strong Nemours/Inspira partnership. The kid-friendly pediatric ED space in Mullica Hill is designed specifically to facilitate high-quality care by experienced ED doctors working with 24/7 access to consult with Nemours pediatricians. I’m especially excited that the state-of-the-art pediatric ED and inpatient areas share specialized pediatric-focused staff in a conjoining space nestled away from adult areas. And, the design of the pediatric and Neonatal Intermediate Care nursery spaces really supports parents staying with their children and participating in their care. It’s a great partnership [for] Nemours, Inspira, and parents.”
No matter where you are in your motherhood journey, know that should that journey take you to Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill, you and your children will be in good hands, because your care is always their first priority.
Want to see the Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill yourself?
Make plans to visit this weekend on Saturday, November 9, for their Free Family Fun Day at Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill from noon to 3 pm.
