Brahms is back at St. Tammany Health System’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital.
After an extended absence, nurses in the Covington hospital’s New Family Center this week reinstituted the practice of playing Johann Brahms’ classic “Lullaby” throughout public areas of the hospital whenever they welcome a new baby into the world.
“It was something started many years ago – although I’m not sure the specific date – somewhere between 2003 and 2008,” New Family Center Director Jamie Romage said. “At some point, it broke and we were told that once our unit renovation was completed we could get it back. Now is that time!”
The process couldn’t be simpler: Whenever a baby is born, a nurse just hits a special button located on the unit. That triggers the lullaby, which plays for 30 seconds, and a dose of warm-and-fuzzies to anyone who knows what it means.
It is played back-to-back for twins, back-to-back-to-back for triplets and so on.
The only time it won’t play is if someone on the unit has suffered a loss. In those cases, the practice will be suspended until their discharge, out of respect for their grief.
As of this writing, the system has been in place for about 24 hours, but people have already noticed.
PBX Supervisor Celita Hart said Thursday morning that multiple people have called into her department, which ordinarily handles overhead alerts and notices, and asked what it means.
Other hospitals around the country have similar systems, but it’s particularly fitting at St. Tammany, the site of the Northshore’s only Obstetric Emergency Department – and the site of more than 62,000 births since the hospital’s opening on Dec. 1, 1954.