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Center for Women and Infants opens its doors
Standing in front of Medical Center Hospital’s new Center for Women and Infants, Desarae Garza and her pregnant sister-in-law Amanda Perkins waited for the facility’s doors to open for the first time Thursday.
After having a bad experience delivering her third daughter at a different hospital, Garza was interested in what the Center had to offer.
“If I’m pregnant, I want to come here,” Garza said. She was waiting to find out if she’s pregnant with her fourth child.
The $42 million new facility features 12 labor and delivery rooms, 20 newborn nursery beds, 30 private postpartum rooms, 30 private neonatal intensive care rooms and a new Ronald McDonald Family Room.
Touring the new facility after the official ribbon cutting, moms-to-be and their families took in the more secure, larger postpartum labor and delivery rooms and the individual rooms in the NICU — a vast difference from the single large room that housed all the babies in the old NICU.
As they waited in line for food at the reception on the fourth floor, Garza and Perkins said they were pleased with what they saw.
“I liked how big it was, how big the rooms are,” Garza said.
Although the babies are no longer all in the same room in the NICU, the machines monitoring their vitals are linked so that if a baby’s vitals go below a certain level nurses in other rooms can be alerted, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Director Imelda Marrero said.
“The NICU sold me,” mom-to-be Lindsay Drake said. “Being able to stay the night with your baby.”
The medical staff is also excited about the extra space which gives them more room to work, Director of Maternal Child Service Christin Timmons said.
“We’ve already moved a lot of our supplies and equipment,” Timmons said.
Pregnant women currently giving birth at MCH will not be moved to the new facility for safety reasons, but come Sunday and Monday, young mothers will be able to deliver at the Center, Timmons said.
The center officially opens to the public on Saturday.
Since the facility’s groundbreaking in 2010, MCH staff has waited for the Center to become a reality.
Standing at the fourth floor reception, MCH’s Chief Nursing Officer Marlene McAllister watched the project come to fruition as guests talked and explored the new building.
“It’s exciting to see the lobbies full of people,” McAllister said.
@OAhealth
