The Brown University Labor and Delivery Center at Women & Infants will start welcoming patients next week
The new Women & Infants Labor and Delivery Center
Shannon Sullivan, president and COO of Women & Infants Hospital, introduces one of the 20 patient rooms in the new Women & Infants Labor and Delivery Center.
- The new labor and delivery center replaces the hospital’s old one, which dates back to 1986
- Women & Infants raised over $35 million for the center. It is named after Brown University, which chipped in $5 million
- The center – a 20-bed, 18,000-square-foot addition – boasts labor and delivery rooms twice as big as the hospital’s old ones
PROVIDENCE – Starting next week, most babies born in Rhode Island will utter their first cry in a new labor and delivery center at Women & Infants Hospital.
The center, known as the Brown University Labor and Delivery Center, is a 20-bed, 18,000-square-foot addition to Women & Infants. It will replace the hospital’s nearly 40-year-old labor and delivery space next door, which dates back to 1986.
Women & Infants raised more than $35 million to build the center. It is named after Brown University, which chipped in $5 million. (The center is not affiliated with Brown University Health, formerly known as Lifespan).
The new rooms are spacious – at 440 square feet, twice as big as the hospital’s old labor and delivery rooms – have their own bathrooms, windows that bring in natural light and user-friendly tech that allows patients to personalize their stay.
“We’ve really worked to make sure that when patients come into this room for the time that they’re here, they can make it their own space,” said Shannon Sullivan, president and COO of Women & Infants. “So we have all the bells and whistles for the clinical teams, but more importantly, we have all the bells and whistles for the patients, too.”
The rooms have other upgrades besides their increased footprint, which in itself will allow larger teams of caregivers to attend to patients, as well as permit more visitors and family members to come in. Patients will now have access to birthing tubs and slings in any of the rooms.
The rooms also come equipped with Panda Warmers, a type of portable heated bassinet that has an integrated X-ray cassette tape and vitals-monitoring capabilities. The Panda Warmers will allow a NICU team to care for newborn infants without having to take them out of the room, which was not the case in the old labor and delivery space.
“What we know from a research perspective is that parents are at higher risk for post-traumatic stress disorder after a delivery if there is interventions being done by or to their baby that they can’t see. And so this allows families to be able to see everything that’s happening, for the NICU team to have plenty of space, to be able to explain to parents what they are doing in the moment,” Sullivan said.
Michael Wagner, CEO of Care New England, the parent health care company of Women & Infants, highlighted the role the hospital plays in Rhode Island. About 81% of babies born in the state are delivered there.
“We don’t quite recognize in the state of Rhode Island just how much of a gem Women & Infants is,” Wagner said.
He added that the new labor and delivery center, in a way, is meant to reflect the quality of care Women & Infants provides to expecting mothers.
“We are now creating a space that’s commensurate with the experience, with the expertise that comes here. So it’s really exciting to be able to have a space that really exemplifies the commitment we have to the patient, their preferences, and the families and the others that they want to be part of their personal experience,” Wagner said.
Women & Infants is expecting to receive their first patients in the new center on Tuesday and to transition all patients in labor and delivery there by the end of the week.
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