Oh, baby! Giving birth in the age of coronavirus
‘They’re still booming,’ St. Tammany Health System Assistant Vice President for Women’s and Children’s Services Cindy Ingram said recently when asked about the baby business at STHS. To keep the hospital’s new arrivals as safe as possible from the COVID-19 coronavirus, and to offer a little extra piece of mind to their moms, STHS has introduced a number of changes in the way it does things in its labor and delivery unit. (Image via Shutterstock)
By Mike Scott, mscott@stph.org
A lot has changed because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, but at least one thing hasn’t: babies.
They’re still coming, whether mom and dad are ready or not. And they’re still easily the snuggliest of the VIPs at St. Tammany Health System’s New Family Center.
And that’s exactly why the hospital has taken extra steps – baby steps, if you will – to keep COVID-19, and all the attendant worries associated with it, as far as possible from the hospital’s newest arrivals, according to Cindy Ingram, STHS’s assistant vice president for Women’s and Children’s Services.
“The hospital is the safest place to have your baby, so we want everybody to feel like they are comfortable coming here and that there’s nothing to worry about,” Ingram said in a recent interview on The Lake 94.7 FM. “Let us take all the worries out of that. Come in and have an enjoyable experience. It may be a little different than what you would normally expect. … It’s a different time right now. But we’re going to make your experience as safe as possible.”
As an example of the changes made to the hospital’s normal operating procedure, Ingram said nobody should expect to see a crowd of extended family members nervously pacing as they await their newest arrival.
“We did impose changes for visitation here at the hospital,” she said. “That was after a state mandate. We are only allowing one significant other to come up with the mothers who are in labor or who are coming in for an induction. That’s for the safety of the mom, the baby and the caregivers that are coming with her.”
When they show up at the hospital on the big day, new moms and their designated caregiver – whether the father, another family member or a friend – will be screened before being admitted to STHS facilities. That brief screening process sees nurses taking the temperature of both and asking a series of now-familiar questions: Have you traveled out of the country recently? Have you been experiencing coughing or other flu-like symptoms?
Once they’re given the all-clear, mom and caregiver are each given a mask to wear – as is everyone in the hospital during the coronavirus outbreak, whether patient or staff member – and taken straight up to their room in the Labor and Delivery unit.
And that’s where the new-baby magic happens.
While they wait, though, the hospital is asking the new-families-to-be to remain in their room and let the nursing staff cater to their needs.
“Once that caregiver is here with mom, we’re going to ask them not to leave,” Ingram said. “They just need to bring in whatever they may need -- some toiletries, anything like that. We do provide the meals for mom and the significant other that’s with her, whoever she chooses to bring. … That way they don’t have to go out. They don’t have to worry about what they’re going to get. If they need anything from the vending machine, we will get that for them, just to stop additional in-and-out traffic and make everything safer for mom.”
If a new mom or other family member has questions about hospital procedures during this unusual time, Ingram said they shouldn’t hesitate to pick up a phone and call the New Family Center at (985) 898-4436.
They can also take solace in the fact that they just might be beating the rush, baby-wise.
“Typically, nine months after an event, we do have a baby boom,” Ingram said. “So we’ll have to wait and see around Christmastime to see if we have a lot of Christmas babies.”
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Get all the latest information on COVID-19 in our community at STHS.org/COVID-19.