ST. GEORGE, Utah – Making the hospital room feel more like home: That’s the goal behind a set of remodeled birth suites at Dixie Regional Medical Center.
Directors said the birth suites came about after receiving feedback from mothers about what they wanted to see in a hospital birth. The result was “less hospital.” Thursday, the hospital held an open house to show off the new rooms.
“I walked in there and I felt like I was at a spa,” said Morgan Dewey, who toured the birth suites. “Which, who wouldn’t want to birth in a spa?”
The Simply Birth suites have a queen-sized bed, dark wood finishes and a tub in the room. Amy Christensen, DRMC Director of Women and Children, said the rooms are designed to let a mother labor and birth how she wants, and plays off of a national trend they’re seeing in a return to more natural childbirth.
“We’re really coming back to more and more women who are wanting that home-like, very natural, just-go-with-it type experience,” Christensen said. “They really want a different experience.”
Mothers have to qualify to use the birthing suites. Christensen said some of those requirements include having a low risk pregnancy and a familiarity with natural birth--either through classes or experience.
Candice Chandler was the first mother to use the suite. She gave birth to her son, Cassel, earlier this month. She said for her it was the perfect balance of the comfort of home while still having medical professionals on hand should something go wrong.
“They would come in and make sure the baby was safe every half hour, but other than that I didn’t have to have an IV, I didn’t have to have a hep lock,” Chandler said. “That would have made it hard for me to just relax and let my body do what I knew it needed to do.”
So far, directors said they’ve had a lot of interest in the suites, and they said if it continues they’ll consider remodeling other rooms.
For more information about the DRMC Simply Birth or to apply, call (435) 688-5345 or email DRMCBIRTH@imail.org.
