“There will be an open house Feb. 27 from 5-7 p.m.,” said Hospital Spokesperson Joni Pawelk, who recently became a new mom herself. 

“There will be a presentation at 6 p.m.,” she said. “We would like our local families to come and take a tour.”

 

The newly-remodelled unit is securely locked with card entry for staff. All others have to press a buzzer for admission. 

 

“We have to be very conscious of security these days,” Pawelk said.

 

Amie Bartlett, RN BSN, heads up the unit. Bartlett, herself a mother of five, has 10 years of experience as a labor and delivery nurse at St. Cloud Hospital and worked in intensive care at Rochester. She has also worked as a traveling nurse, caring for high risk pregnancy moms and their babies in their own homes.

 

The new birthing center contains five large multipurpose rooms where moms go through labor, deliver the baby, recover and receive postpartum care. 

 

The rooms have enormous closets to store medical equipment out of sight when it is not in use. They are also equipped with a fold-out couch which can be made into a full-size bed for mom’s support person. The rooms are also equipped with a microwave in addition to the latest in medical technology. The crowning glory of each unit is a private bathroom with deep air-jet tubs to aid mom’s recovery.

 

“All the rooms have the same  equipment but they are all unique in their own way,” Bartlett said.

 

Equipment includes a baby bathing sink with a heated light above it to keep the infant warm and a baby stabilizer called a panda warmer. Once baby is stable, a regular bassinet replaces the panda warmer.

 

The unit is equipped with a central fetal monitor which allows the staff to monitor all the babies, even those still in utero, from the central nurses station.

 

The monitoring stations in the rooms not only track how mother and baby are doing, they can perform electronic medical record keeping, Bartlett said.

 

The birthing center has a separate family lounge which contains a kitchenette. It has a coffee maker, an ice maker, a giant flat screen television and a computer kiosk.

 

There is a separate triage room for moms coming to be admitted or for medical staff to perform procedures.

 

A separate nursery has five bassinets and two rocking chairs. It also contains an isolation room to provide more privacy for things like lactation services. There is a work area in the nursery where staff can perform other medical procedures such as circumcision.

 

Doctors from the Monticello Clinic and the Albertville-St. Michael Clinic have been working hand in hand with CentraCare on a task force to design the unit and establish new policies and procedures.

 

“A lot of collaboration has taken place to build this unit,” Pawelk said. “And we now have physician anesthesiology coverage 24 hours a day, seven days per week.”

 

The previous unit at the hospital, then known as New River Medical Center, closed after physicians from those clinics began referring their patients elsewhere for delivery.

 

The fact that those doctors have been working with CentraCare on re-opening the unit is an indication of improved relationships between the physicians and hospital management.

 

The hospital has already been getting calls from mothers-to-be in the community who are excited about the new facility and the opportunity to have their babies close to home.

 

“The word is out there,” Pawelk said. “It has been fun and very exciting.