Hospitals across Kansas City are restricting visitors including those for moms in labor. While it’s not ideal, the purpose is to keep mom, baby and hospital staff safe and most importantly healthy.
Providing emotional support and a healing environment is at the heart of every hospital. However, we are in unprecedented times, and it will truly take a collective effort for our community to be selfless and take every precaution by limiting the risk of exposure to laboring moms, newborns, other patients, staff and physicians.
As labor and delivery nurses, our priority is to keep patients, caregivers and the community safe by avoiding any spread of this virus. We need to prevent not just the spread, but deaths, and we need clinicians to provide this specialized care which will not be possible if they are unknowingly exposed by a visitor.
With the new visitor procedures, clinical teams, lactation consultants, support staff and physicians at every hospital in the Kansas City area will be providing the care and support of new moms and their babies.
We wanted to provide some tips on how to make every member of your family feel involved, even if they cannot physically be at the hospital.
FaceTime
In this digital world everyone is connected by their phones. You can include family in the birthing, bonding and healing experience by including them in the process via FaceTime.
Photos
You can share photos with your loved ones via social media, text and email. You will created additional memories with every photo that you take.
Order In
If the hospital permits, order takeout from your favorite restaurant to celebrate your growing family.
Phone calls
You can spend as much time as you want chatting with friends and loved ones on the phone.
Video
You can shoot video of you and your baby bonding to share with your loved ones.
24/7 video monitoring
If your baby is placed in a NICU, many hospitals across Kansas City, including Overland Park Regional Medical Center, have video cameras that families can access 24/7 to watch their baby.
We understand that restricting visitors is difficult for our patients and their families. This decision was not made lightly and we know how important a support system is for our laboring and postpartum moms. However, we must make these new restrictions out of an abundance of caution to keep our patients, staff and you – as a parent — as safe and healthy as possible. Thank you for your support in keeping our patients, employees and physicians safe.
Lisa Holk, RN, is an OB Navigator at Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Lisa was previously a labor and delivery nurse for 14 years. She serves as a guide, advocate and friend for expectant parents making the journey to parenthood. Lisa collaborates with parents-to-be from their very first visit to the hospital until they welcome their newest addition.
Danae Young, RN, is an OB Navigator at Overland Park Regional Medical Center. She is a former labor and delivery, triage, baby and antepartum nurse. Danae is committed to collaborating with expectant parents, serving as a guide, advocate and friend as they make the journey to parenthood. Danae works closely with parents from the time of their very first hospital tour through all the stages of pregnancy and finally as they welcome their newest addition.
HCA Midwest Health delivers more babies than any other hospital system in the Kansas City region. In fact, more than 6,000 moms from across 13 counties choose to deliver their babies with us each year. Our four birthing centers across Kansas City offer spacious maternity and birthing suites to gourmet meals to music playlists, we keep moms comfortable and relaxed while they await baby’s birth. Learn more at hcamidwest.com/uniquedelivery.
Does this include the father’s?