The Family Birthing Center at Highland Hospital Is Now Open

The Family Birthing Center at Highland Hospital offers specialty care for expecting mothers, their babies, and their entire families. 
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Oakland families are now benefitting from the improved Family Birthing Center at Highland Hospital — part of the hospital’s recent $670 million renovation. It offers cutting-edge technology and access to teams of midwives, obstetricians, and nurses in a comfortable, home-like setting. 

Exceptional Facilities for Newborns and Their Families

Housed in Highland Hospital’s new Acute Care Tower, the Family Birthing Center offers expectant parents everything they need for a safe and welcoming labor and delivery. The Center strives for child- and mother-focused care, with the goal of implementing the family’s birth plan whenever medically possible and appropriate. A team of skilled maternity specialists is on site and are open to collaborating with doulas throughout the birthing process.

The newly built facility has numerous amenities, including:

  • A 24/7 team of obstetricians, Certified Nurse Midwives, and labor and delivery nurses
  • Private labor and delivery rooms
  • High-tech monitoring solutions that allow mothers to move around more freely during labor
  • Spacious post-partum suites with room for visitors and loved ones
  • 24-hour room service for expectant mothers
  • Improved NICU facilities that allow a mother to stay with her newborn 
  • Wide hallways for ease of access and patient movement
  • Noise-reducing materials in the walls and floors for a more peaceful environment

Additionally, the Family Birthing Center is open to delayed cord clamping and bathing, which some families prefer for parent-child bonding and other purposes. 

For two years in a row, the Family Birthing Center was recognized by the California Health and Human Services Agency and Smart Care California for its dramatic decrease in Cesarean (C-section) births for low-risk, first-time mothers. Currently, Highland Hospital performs fewer low-risk C-sections than the 2020 federal target of 23.9%. The hospital attributes this reduction in C-sections to the presence and talent of their nurse-midwife team.

A Baby-Friendly Hospital

Labor and delivery are just two of many phases of childbirth. Highland Hospital’s skilled team of OB-GYNs, nurses, pediatricians, and lactation specialists step in once a mother has safely delivered her child. They work to ensure that parent-child bonding isn’t limited due to medical care and monitoring — helping to spark close and loving relationships that will last a lifetime.

Since 2012, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have designated Highland Hospital as a Baby-Friendly Hospital. (The hospital is currently in the re-designation process.) Baby-Friendly Hospitals comply with a series ten of guidelines that are considered best practices in newborn care, focusing on skin-to-skin care, breastfeeding support, and keeping infants with their mother (rather than in a closed nursery). The hospital also offers a wide variety of prenatal and postpartum classes and support services. 

Highland Hospital and Canopy Health: Partners in Infant Wellness

Canopy Health is proud to include Highland Hospital’s Family Birthing Center as a major asset in our expanding alliance. Its patient-focused, baby-friendly approach benefits mothers, infants, and their extended families and reflects our alliance’s dedication to refreshingly clear, human care. 

Reference:

Highland Hospital makes California honor roll (2018, January 19). Alameda Health System. Retrieved from http://www.alamedahealthsystem.org/highland-hospital-makes-california-honor-roll/