Renovations complete for Union Hospital's Labor & Delivery & Neonatal Infant Care Unit

TERRE HAUTE, Ind (WTHI) - - A few months ago, News 10 went behind the scenes to see Union Hospital's Labor & Delivery and Neonatal Infant Care Unit (NICU) Departments under construction. 

Well, now they are open!  

In this Healthy Living, we'll take you on a tour of the new, state of the facilities.

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Dr. Joanne Goldbort explains.  “You are in our new 'L.D.R.' or 'birthing suite' as what we are calling them.    We have 8 of these, which is up from 5 that we currently have.  So we're really excited that we have more space for moms to have their babies.  We have warmers in every room so that we can wrap the baby in a warm blanket.   Wrap mom in a blanket if she is cold.  Have some warm water, I mean it's really all a very comprehensive room where we don't have to leave and go get things.  Everything will be operational right here in this room. 

“We're in our neonatal intensive care unit.  We're going from 9 beds to 15.  These are babies that are really not doing as well as we expect or  they're just needing to be stabilized.  Again, all of the warmers will be the same.  They're fully operational for putting a baby on a ventilator...whatever we need to do.  But the goal is  to have some more quiet time for mom and dad and the family.  When you're in a high risk situation, it can be very critical and a lot of stress.  So our goal is hopefully to make you a little calmer, give you more access to your baby...that kind of thing.

“We are in one of the triage observation rooms.  We have 9 areas here.  5 of which are these private rooms.  Mom may come in, she's not sure she's in labor and she'll need a medical exam done to determine.  If she is in labor, then we will move her into one of our labor room/birthing suites.  If she's not, then we'll do the testing that needs to be done and get her out in a timely manner so that she doesn't have to sit here and wonder what's going on.

“If you're wanting to have a tour, Karen Baker, our Childbirth Educator, can be called and arrange a tour with her.  Her number is (812) 238-4895.”