“So, those two beds will also help with that piece, to try and create an environment where, hopefully, we can support parents having their babies in the room with them and dad being able to stay and have that more family-friendly environment and patient-centred care,” she said. The addition of these new beds will mean that, in almost every case, new moms will have the opportunity to have their own room. That limits the capacity for spouses to stay with the new mom and baby and for additional family members to come visit and meet the newborn. When you actually have your baby you are in a room by yourself, Pilgrim explained, but afterward there are some cases when you may be doubled up. It’s not always preventable with our numbers and we can’t control people coming in in labour,” she said. “Sometimes, and it’s not always what we want, people have to be doubled up in a room and we prefer not to do that if we can prevent it. In the maternity department the addition of two beds will mean a major step forward. Pilgrim said it’s important it’s still accessible to the nursing department should additional staff be needed to help a patient. The new area will include an additional space, bringing the total beds up to five in that area, and there will be a larger waiting area. It’s a work town and we definitely are trying to help people out in that regard,” said Pilgrim.

We want you to be able to, if you have an appointment, to bring your child if you’re stuck. “And the NST clinic currently is a little bit of a confined space, so, we want dad to come with mom.

Moving it further away will avoid putting expectant mothers in that position. “It can be a little bit overwhelming, especially when you have moms in labour and walking the hallways and you’re not quite ready for that yet.” “Right now that area is in the hub of our maternity area and it’s quite busy,” said Pilgrim. The clinic is where expectant mothers come for required testing during their pregnancies to make sure mom and baby are both healthy. Moving the clinic out of the hub will mean it will be located in a more calm part of the health centre, but will still have access to the nursing staff, according to Juanita Pilgrim, the manager of the maternity and pediatric department at the health centre. The expansion will move the non-stress testing clinic further away from the hub of activity while also adding two maternity beds and one postpartum bed to the unit to meet our city’s growing birth rate. The $450,000 expansion was made possible by community fundraising and a $40,000 donation from the former group Kids Forever which disbanded in the fall of 2015 after 19 years working in the community to raise money for pediatric health care. Goal is to meet growing birth-rate by providing more patient-centred and family-friendly careĪn expansion under way at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre will make bringing new babies into the world more of a family-friendly experience, and a little easier on new moms.Two new maternity beds and one new postpartum bed will be added.The expansion costs $450,000, all money raised in the community.(The Northern Lights Regional Health Centre.

Northern lights pediatrics