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Plans progressing for birthing center to serve expectant mothers in the Northern Neck Date published: 9/21/2008
BY FRANK DELANO What is now a field of grass may become the birthplace of hundreds of Northern Neck children in years to come. If all goes as planned, bids will be sought next month for the construction of a $1.6 million birthing center on the 2-acre site in Lancaster County, said Shirley C. Dodson-McAdoo, executive director of the nonprofit Family Maternity Center of the Northern Neck Inc. "The center will restore birth services to families in the Northern Neck by using an innovative model of care," she said. When the 6,000-square-foot building is completed, Dodson-McAdoo expects 45 babies to be born there in its first year of operation. She predicts about 150 babies a year will be born at the center after five years. She said the center will employ three nurse midwives. It will limit its practice to low-risk births by women who have participated in prenatal care. Surgery and anesthesia, such as cesarean sections and epidurals, will not be performed at the center. "Women were made for having babies," said Dodson-McAdoo. "But a lot of women are concerned about delivering babies in hospitals because of the risks of infection, the effects of medications and being left alone in a bed in a room at the end of a hall. "The new center will be a home-like facility. For moms and babies, it will be friendlier, safer and healthier environment than a hospital," she said. "But we want physicians to work together with the midwives." To that end, the center will establish high-tech links with doctors at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond that will enable them to participate in exams and view patient records, Dodson-McAdoo said. The opening of the birthing center will come five years after Rappahannock General Hospital in Kilmarnock closed its labor and delivery rooms in 2004. About 250 babies were born at the hospital each year. Since then, expectant mothers on the isolated, rural Northern Neck peninsula have driven an hour or more to delivery rooms in Newport News, Richmond or Fredericksburg.
My wife and I had both our children via waterbirth, with only midwives attending and no drugs. Fantastic experience for both of us, and our kids are off-the-charts in their development and happiness. The families of Northern Neck won't realize what a blessing this center is until the first success stories trickle out: no nasty nurses or drug-pushing docs, freedom to move, eat, and drink during labor, and birthing the way women are designed to do it. Yay, Family Maternity Ctr! (from Portland, OR)
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