The mothers have spoken, and the hospitals are listening.

As more and more expectant moms choose midwives during childbirth, both hospitals in Boca Raton are now offering that experience.

It’s part of the trend toward more natural parenting choices, beginning at, well, the very beginning.

And according to The New York Times, it’s also becoming a status symbol.

Midwife Christine Hackshaw, who attends births at both West Boca Medical Center and Boca Raton Regional Hospital, says moms are looking for a more personal touch in the delivery room.  A doctor may be in and out, but the midwife tends to stay with the patient, even through hours of labor.

“Midwives are more open to natural birth methods,” she said, helping the mothers choose how to deliver.

Their Ceasarean section rates are usually lower.

Hackshaw got into midwifery after working as a labor nurse and seeing things she wanted to change.

“I allow women to labor, I don’t rush them,” she said. “You don’t have to have Pitocin every single time. Your body can do this on its own. As long as you’ve got a healthy mom and a healthy baby, give her a chance.”

Midwives only work with uncomplicated cases. High-risk pregnancies stay with the obstetricians.

Midwives once attended mostly home births, but now most of them work in hospitals and even offer prenatal and gynecological care in doctors’ offices, Hackshaw said. Their services are usually covered by insurance.  She has been certified for 10 years – four years of training to become an RN and another two for a master’s degree – and is among three midwives in the practice of Drs. Birnbach, Lubetkin and Schey.

MORE ON MATERNITY

• Read more about maternity services at West Boca and Boca Raton Regional in the BocaParent blog.
• Download West Boca’s maternity tracker app
• Both hospitals get high ratings

- CHARLENE PACENTI

Keeping notes through your pregnancy and baby’s first year – from doctor’s appointments to labor pains to baby’s many “firsts” – can be maddening when you don’t even have time to shower most days.

But new features added to the mobile app from West Boca Medical Center make it easy to keep track of all that, as it happens.

The new maternity section of the app has a built-in journal, plus sections for noting the baby’s movement, mom’s contractions and at-your-fingertips info on the signs of labor.

There’s also a long list of baby names to mull over while you’re waiting for those doctor’s appointments, or you’re just too uncomfortable to leave the sofa.

The Baby’s First Year part of the app is also a convenient place to store all kinds of information, like immunization charts, eating charts and a growth tracker. It also has a place for recording “Baby’s Firsts” – likely to save anguish (weeks or months) later, as you sit down with that blank baby book trying to recall dates.

Also very helpful: a Diaper Bag Checklist, as well as a way to organize photos.

The app even plays lullabies.

Beyond the maternity section, you can also use the app to check ER wait times – and the let the hospital know you’re on the way, should the need arise.

The app is available for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iTouch, as well as Android and Blackberry devices. It’s free.

Read more about it here.

LEARN MORE

• 3-Minute Guru: Pediatrician advises keeping kids’ medication info handy

A new report on maternity care gives five-star ratings to both Boca Raton area hospitals.

Healthgrades.com, a consumer website that helps patients find doctors, dentists and hospitals, gave its top rating to the maternity departments at West Boca Medical Center and Boca Raton Regional Hospital. It’s June 21 report, Trends in Women’s Health in American Hospitals, used three years of data (2008-10) from 19 states where hospital patient outcomes data are publically available. The 224 best‐performing hospitals, including Boca’s two, were designated as five stars.

The hospitals were evaluated on:

• Vaginal delivery maternal complication rates for single live deliveries
• C‐section delivery maternal complication rates for single live deliveries
• Overall volume and volume of low birth weight deliveries
• Risk‐adjusted infant mortality rates for single live deliveries

The report also notes that after a few years of increasing, the number of C-sections nationwide has been flat since 2009,  at 33 percent – although Florida is still among three states with the highest percentage of C-sections, compared to vaginal births, at 38.3 percent.

This may be the result of a nationwide push to eliminate induced labor or scheduled C-sections that are not medically necessary, according to the report.

Besides maternity care, the report made a startling find about women’s cardiovascular care: “Being a woman increased the likelihood of death in cardiovascular surgery and acute heart attacks
when compared to men.”

Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 cause of death among women. That’s right – more than all forms of cancer, including breast cancer.

The report found:

• In 2010, only 39.5% of women who suffered a heart attack received a surgical intervention compared to 54.3% of all men.
• Among heart attack patients receiving an intervention, the mortality rate for women was 29.1% higher than for men.

Part of the problem: “Women’s heart attack symptoms are easily confused for many other conditions–both by women who may ignore symptoms and by the medical team treating them,” the report said.

Learn more about the symptoms and risk factors in the full report at Healthgrades.com.

MORE ON MATERNITY

Read all about the maternity departments at West Boca Medical Center and Boca Raton Regional Hospital in the BocaParent blog.

Photo courtesy Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

Whenever a baby is born at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, a lullaby plays over the intercom throughout the hospital, even in the outlying office buildings.

It’s an “aaaaaaaawwwww” moment that happens about 150 times a month.

The hospital’s Toppel Family Place is known for its mother-baby model of care, which supports keeping the two together as much as possible, under the care of a single nurse.

“We know that early bonding is really important,” said Karen Edlington, the hospital’s director of women’s & children’s services.

Even if a baby needs to spend some time in the neonatal intensive-care unit, hospital staff encourage the mother’s “kangaroo care” – holding the baby close – and breast-feeding.

The hospital offers a daily breastfeeding support group and 90 percent of patients do start breastfeeding. (A twice-a-week support group is free and open to the public, no matter where you gave birth). And the hospital calls new mothers to follow up after they have gone home.

“Early support is really important,” Edlington said.

Birth plans

Edlington said more women are looking to experience natural childbirth and a host of alternative birthing plans. Some women are choosing hynobirths, or to go through labor in a tub of water (many working through Amazing Births and Beyond).

Boca Regional also works with six midwives who practice with local obstetricians.

“We’ll support whatever kind of birth experience you want,” Edlington said. “It’s a privilege to be part of somebody’s birth.”

She is happy to conduct private tours or meet with parents-to-be to discuss birth plans.

An obstetrics-only anesthesiologist is available 24 hours a day. Two operating rooms are reserved for obstetrics.

NICU

Boca Regional is certified as a Level 2 NICU, with an in-house neonatologist and nurses that are all trained to Level 3.

If babies need surgery, are born before 28 weeks gestation, or weigh less than 1,000 grams, they are likely to be transferred to specialists at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood or Miami Children’s Hospital.

Amenities

All rooms are private and decorated with homey touches – wooden headboards, armoires, nicely upholstered sofas and gliders. Some may share a bathroom if many of the rooms are occupied.

The hospital has wi-fi (and people are Skyping, Tweeting and Facebooking their births).

There’s a Daddy shower room.

Maternity patients can order food from a special menu.

There are no hard-and-fast visitation rules.

Classes

Besides breastfeeding support and child-birth classes, the hospital offers classes on infant CPR for the whole family; a class for siblings-to-be; prenatal yoga; baby signing and more.

Get descriptions of classes and more details on the hospital’s website.

To learn more

Maternity tours are 6 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays. Call 561-955-3276 to register. The hospital is at 800 Meadows Rd. in east Boca.

Visit the hospital’s website.

• Read about West Boca Medical Center’s maternity services in a previous post.

- CHARLENE PACENTI

For moms-to-be trying to decide where to give birth, medical expertise and support is the first consideration. After that, it’s usually about comfort.

West Boca Medical Center’s Birthcare Pavilion, which delivers about 200 babies a month, strives to offer both.

Thirty-six obstetricians and midwives deliver at West Boca, and an anesthesiologist is there 24/7. The hospital’s maternity care has been rated among the top 5 percent in the nation for the past five years by HealthGrades.com.

In case the baby arrives with complications, West Boca has the highest-level neonatal intensive care unit in the area, with a staff of 50 to watch over as many as 34 beds, including micro-preemies weighing less than 2 pounds. The NICU was expanded just two years ago. HealthGrades rates the hospital as “better than expected” in the newborn survival category.

Louise Toby-Harris, director of labor & delivery, has experienced the hospital’s success with preemies firsthand. Three years ago, her daughter gave birth to a baby girl at only 25 weeks into the pregnancy. The baby stayed in the NICU for four months.

Now, she’s a smart, energetic little girl, Toby-Harris said.

West Boca’s well-baby nursery can hold 24 infants at once, but the newborns are often rooming in with their moms for most of their stay.

The labor and delivery rooms – all private, with private bathrooms – are decorated to look more like a home bedroom than a hospital room, with dark wood armoires, wood floors and nicely tiled bathrooms. Framed pictures on the wall slide up to reveal the medical equipment for when the big moment arrives.

“We try to make it as homey as possible,” said Doreen O’Boyle-Neary, clinical manager of labor & delivery.

For those delivering via C-section, West Boca has two dedicated operating rooms in the maternity unit.

For postpartum recovery, the hospital offers two private suites and two “Princess Suites.” The luxury Princess suites cost an extra $150 a night (not covered by insurance). They can be reserved in advance for scheduled births; otherwise, it’s first come,  first served. All other postpartum rooms are semi-private.

A lactation consultant is also available to assist with breast feeding.

On their last night in the hospital, the mother and partner are treated to a gourmet dinner.

BOCA BIRTH TRENDS

West Boca maternity staff say they are seeing more moms-to-be come in with research under their belt, many using midwives and also trying alternatives to pain medication, like the birthing ball.

“It’s their body and we let them do what they have to do,” Toby-Harris said.

NICU RATINGS

Level 2 – Babies need a little observation, or maybe a course of antibiotics. They usually stay in the NICU less than 10 days.

Level 3 – Babies who need more medical intervention. (West Boca has the only Level 3 NICU in Boca and northwest Broward).

OTHER DETAILS

Siblings can visit, but they may not stay overnight.

You can order food (like stir-fry, ziti and creme brulee) from the hospital’s restaurant-style menu.

To schedule a tour, call 866-904-9262.

Watch a video tour of the Birthcare Pavilion on YouTube.

CLASSES

West Boca offers several classes to get ready for your new arrival, and to care for the baby afterward. Check the schedulefor classes on childbirth, breastfeeding, new baby care, prenatal yoga and more at the hospital’s website.  Select “Maternity” from the “Search by Topic” menu.

- CHARLENE PACENTI