BEAUFORT MEMORIAL COLLINS BIRTHING CENTER

Bringing Babies into the World

story by MARIE McADEN
photos by CHARLOTTE BERKELEY & PAUL NURNBERG

Women who hit the pause button on pregnancy during the initial COVID-19 shutdown are no longer waiting to have a baby. Experts say the dramatic rebound in births nationwide could be the start of the next baby boom.

For Beaufort moms-to-be, the timing couldn’t be better.

Just months before the start of the pandemic, Beaufort Memorial Hospital (BMH) completed a $6 million, three-year renovation of its birthing center, offering expectant mothers a spacious, spa-like setting to give birth.

“The rooms are warm and inviting with better accommodations for the spouse or primary support person,” said Birthing Center Director Tiffany Washington. “At the same time, we’ve upgraded our labor and delivery room technology, including abdominal monitors that allow patients to be more mobile during the labor experience.”

BMH also invested in upgraded Panda Warmers, providing doctors and nursing staff with the ability to evaluate and treat babies needing extra care at the mother’s bedside rather than whisking them away to the neonatal unit.

Major renovations were made to the 12 private postpartum rooms and improvements to the labor and delivery facilities. Spacious yet cozy, each room now features a pleasing mural of a Lowcountry scene, remodeled bathrooms, and new sconces on either side of the bed, allowing the patient to adjust the lighting to suit their needs.

One of the most innovative additions made to the postpartum rooms and eight labor and delivery suites is a multipurpose furniture system that can be transformed from a couch to a bed to a combination rocker and glider, or seats that face each other with a table between them for intimate dining. The furniture also features charging stations for phones and laptops.

“We’ve created a family feel in the birthing center with rooms that look more like your home than a sterile hospital room,” Washington said. “You truly get the best of both worlds — a homey ambiance with the most advanced care.”

Other improvements include an updated waiting room, featuring comfortable, contemporary furniture equipped with electrical outlets and mobile device chargers.

Services also were upgraded and now include bedside prescription delivery and a 24/7 Warm Line, offering advice from birthing center nurses on breastfeeding, newborn care, and postpartum issues.

But the birthing center’s biggest asset — the health care professionals who care for mother and baby — is anything but new. Along with eight board-certified OB-GYNs and three on-site pediatric hospitalists, the staff includes a team of nurses on every shift, boasting more than 100 years of obstetrical experience.

“There’s a tremendous amount of trust and communication between us that only comes with longevity and experience,” said BMH Chief of Obstetrics Dr. Gregory Miller. “I know every single one of these nurses, and I trust them implicitly.”

For RN Tiffany Heath, the mutual trust and camaraderie shared by the staff is one of the reasons she has worked in BMH’s labor and delivery unit for 15 of her 17 years as a nurse.

“It feels good knowing you’re working with such a good team,” she said. “We’re all here for the same reason – to deliver healthy babies.”

Everything at the hospital is geared to make it as easy as possible for the patient from arrival to discharge. Registration takes place right at the bedside, and medications can be delivered to the room, saving the new parents a trip to the pharmacy on the way home.

More importantly, BMH is the only hospital in Beaufort, Hampton, and Jasper counties to feature a Level II nursery staffed 24/7 by board-certified pediatricians and nurses trained to care for preterm babies born as early as 32 weeks. The highly specialized care can include assisted ventilation for up to 24 hours, along with continuous positive airway pressure for preemies who need additional respiratory support; nourishment through a tube down the nose or mouth until the baby can feed normally; and Giraffe Isolette incubators, which act like a womb to provide the baby a warm place to grow.

The birthing center also has access to in-house anesthesia and pediatric services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as well as respiratory and physical therapists as needed.

Amy Geier, a highly experienced maternity nurse with 20 years’ experience, is one of the RNs in the unit certified in low-risk, neonatal nursing. She also works in labor and delivery, the nursery, and postpartum unit.

“We truly love our jobs bringing babies into the world,” said Geier, a member of the BMH staff for 15 years. “It’s a wonderful gift we get to experience every day.”

Since its first birth more than 75 years ago, the hospital has welcomed thousands of babies into the world, providing Lowcountry mothers with safe, comfortable, and comprehensive prenatal and postpartum care close to home. In 1994, the department was renamed the Beaufort Memorial Collins Birthing Center in honor of Beaufort’s first and much-admired obstetrician Dr. Earnest S. Collins. As part of the recent renovation project, the waiting room now features a tribute wall dedicated to his legacy.

“My father was among a small group of physicians who started from the ground up,” said BMH Medical Director of Laboratories Dr. Brad Collins, who joined the hospital in 1996, three years after his father retired. “When our family thinks back on the personal sacrifice my dad made when he came in 1971, we can’t imagine how he did it. For four years, he was on call 24/7.”

At the time, the father of three was the only OB-GYN between Charleston and Savannah. It wasn’t until 1975 that Dr. Earnest S. Collins was able to recruit two partners, easing his workload.
Today, the hospital is home to eight board-certified obstetricians, including Drs. Miller, Christopher Benson, Tiffany Bersani, Maggie Bisceglia, Marlena Mattingly, Octavio Melendez-Cabrera, Soldrea Thompson, and Glenn Werner, as well as nurse-midwife Catherine Tambroni-Parker. Medical services span the entire continuum of care from before conception, through pregnancy to birth, and beyond.

Expectant mothers who do not have any health conditions that put them at risk of problems typically see their provider for a prenatal care visit once a month from weeks four through 28, twice a month through week 36, and then weekly until the baby is born. A postpartum visit is scheduled with the patient’s obstetrician four to six weeks after the baby’s delivery, or sooner if the mother had a C-section or other complications.

BMH also features a Baby University, offering a variety of free informative and interactive classes led by labor and delivery nurses for parents-to-be. The classes cover everything from baby basics to preparing for childbirth to breastfeeding. Tours of the Collins Birthing Center have been temporarily suspended, but an online video provides a taste of what parents can expect.

In recent weeks, other COVID restrictions have been eased, allowing the patient’s primary support person and one additional visitor to see the baby and mother during their stay in the hospital. Should visitation restrictions be necessary in the future, visitors are welcome to wait for word of the birth in the hospital’s Kate Gleason Park, a beautiful, green space, overlooking the Beaufort River.

“There’s an incredible feeling of intimacy when you deliver a baby in Beaufort Memorial Hospital,” Dr. Miller said. “You’re not a number or a name – you’re one of our neighbors. We live here, we know our patients, and we care about them. It’s a great little hospital to have a baby.”

For more information about the Beaufort Memorial Collins Birthing Center, please visit BeaufortMemorial.org/Birthing Center.