CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs celebrates the grand opening of the new Anthony Childbirth Center, introducing a family-centered labor and delivery model to ensure that every child in Southwest Arkansas can get a healthy start in life. Major renovations to the Hot Springs unit include 12 private birthing suites for families and a 100% labor, delivery, postpartum and recovery (LDRP) model that keeps mother and child together from admission to discharge.

“We’re incredibly grateful for the generous support that helped make the new Anthony Childbirth Center a reality,” said CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs President Dr. Doug Ross. “Every mother and child born here receives the highest level of care and with our move to a true LDRP model, now they gain added care, instruction and resources to help them continue to thrive long after they leave the hospital.”

The new Anthony Childbirth Center occupies a private wing on the fourth floor of CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs which cares for more than 1000 births each year. The $3.5-million renovation project includes family centered suites where mothers can labor, deliver and recover in the same space without the need to relocate or be separated from their child at any point. That innovation allows the introduction of a 100% LDRP model that ensures each mother gets the prenatal care and access to education she needs to have a healthy delivery and provide the highest quality of care to their child after leaving the hospital.

“This model provides us the opportunity for hands-on education with parents while their newborn is right beside them in the room. Our nurses train parents in couplet care, safe sleep practices and everything else they need to know to care for their newborn,” said Marsha Oliver, nurse manager for Women’s Services at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs. “It also provides a greater opportunity for a mother and newborn to bond in those precious early hours of life with skin-to-skin contact. Couplet care allows our nurses to educate parents on safe sleep practices and learning to read their baby’s cues, whether they’re hungry, sleepy or just need to be cuddled.”

The significantly larger suites within the Anthony Childbirth Center also accommodate larger family support networks. Additional improvements include advanced patient monitoring; newborn bathing sinks with temperature controlled faucets and a radiant heating system to maintain the newborn’s body temperature during bathing; a new critical care nursery; and advanced training for nurses through the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Nursery Alliance so more children and families that require advanced newborn care can receive that care closer to home.

The new Anthony Childbirth Center was made possible by the generous support of local donors, including primary support from the Catherine Cooper Anthony Charitable Trust and additional Anthony family members. The Pregnancy Clinic at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs, part of the network of CHI St. Vincent Community Care, also continues to provide prenatal and obstetrical care for expectant mothers, including nutritional counseling, the services of a social worker and a financial counselor to help ensure every mother has a healthy pregnancy, as well as support and encouragement.