It’s a Relative Option
New, More Family-Oriented Approach to Maternity Care Debuts

When an expectant mother goes to the hospital to deliver her baby, she usually sees the inside of several rooms – at least one for each stage of the birth.

She is in one room for labor, another for delivery and still another for recovery. After the birth, she is moved yet again to a postpartum room. What’s more, one set of nurses cares for the mother while a different team cares for her baby.

Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital is changing all that. When the hospital opened its new $78 million patient tower in February, it debuted a Family Birth Center that features single-room maternity care – complete mother-baby care in the same room.

“Our rooms have been designed and furnished to resemble private bedrooms, not hospital rooms, so new moms feel more at home,” said registered nurse Mary Hersey, the hospital’s director of Inpatient Women and Children Services. After the baby is delivered in a single-room maternity care unit, the medical equipment required for the birth is removed and the room is quickly cleaned and converted back into a private area for the new mother and her family.

“More than a pretty room, single-room maternity care represents a philosophy that the baby is the family’s, not the hospital’s,” said Hersey. “It’s based on the understanding that each family is unique and that one routine may not suit every family. Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital’s commitment is to give each family whatever individual education and support they need to welcome the new baby into their lives.”

Specially skilled nurses offer mother-baby nursing – caring for both mother and baby at the bedside. This enables nurses to nurture bonding and attachment in the new family. It also means the nurse can spend time with the whole family, including the father and other family members, to teach them the skills they need to properly meet the baby’s needs.

“Mother-baby nursing improves communication, since obstetricians and pediatricians work with the same nurse rather than separate nurses,” said Hersey. “At shift change, the needs and wants of the mother and baby are easily passed on to the next nurse. It also means questions are answered quicker and mothers don’t miss precious moments with their baby. They also can see first-hand the kind of care their baby is receiving because they are part of that care.”

Hersey said the advantages to single-room maternity care are many. It’s safer, offering less risk of a fall or other injury by not moving the mother from room to room, and emergencies can be handled at once without moving the patient. Infection risk is reduced since the room is private and not shared with other women or babies. There are no gaps in care resulting from moves to other rooms and the same nurse cares for the family throughout the process. Nurses can spend more time administering care since they’re not busy shuffling the location of mothers and their babies. Personal belongings are less likely to get lost.

The Family Birth Center at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital features 34 single-room maternity care units.

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