|
The Family Maternity Center of the Northern Neck
Shirley Dodson-McAdoo, president of The Family Maternity Center of the Northern Neck, straightens out the linens on a bed in a birth room before the grand opening yesterday. The center's official opening day is Tuesday.
Jessica Jordan, a midwife at the Family Maternity Center of the Northern Neck, checks the inventory of supplies.
Washing machines are available |
The ribbon-cutting yesterday for a new maternity center in Lancaster County comes just in time for a pregnant Northern Neck lady whose baby is destined to be the center's firstborn.
"She's due June 15, plus or minus 14 days," said Jessica Jordan, the certified nurse midwife who will manage the $2 million Family Maternity Center of the Northern Neck.
The first birth will occur in one of two homey delivery rooms complete with birthing tubs. The mother has participated in weeks of prenatal care, including group meetings with about 20 other expectant moms, Jordan said.
About half of them will deliver babies at the center in coming months, Jordan said. The other half will deliver in hospitals "because some of them are high-risk pregnancies and others just prefer hospitals," she said.
Jordan said she expects 25 babies to be born in the imposing 9,765-square-foot, two-story building now surrounded by a field of barley. In three years, 100 babies may be born each year at the birthing center, she said.
The center is connected by high-speed Internet to doctors at VCU Health Systems. The hook-up will allow the Richmond doctors to have video conferences with Northern Neck patients and to view real-time ultrasonic exams. The center will also provide pediatric care managed by a nurse practitioner.
The new center took six years to be born.
"I never thought I'd see it," said Dr. James Hamilton, an obstetrician who delivered many of the 250 babies that were once born each year at Rappahannock General Hospital in Kilmarnock. Hamilton is medical director of the new center.
Citing high insurance costs, RGH closed its labor and delivery rooms in 2004, forcing pregnant Northern Neck moms to drive an hour or more to delivery rooms in Richmond, Fredericksburg or Hampton Roads.
The closing of obstetrical units at Kilmarnock and other small-town hospitals prompted Del. Albert Pollard, D-Lancaster, to seek a state pilot program to test the birthing-center model in rural communities. The Northern Neck center received $150,000 to develop its plans.
The late JoAnn Davis, who represented the Northern Neck in the U.S. House of Representatives, also obtained a $190,000 earmark appropriation for the Northern Neck center to help with its planning.
According to the American Association of Birthing Centers, there are more than 200 birthing centers in the U.S.
The Northern Neck center is the fourth in Virginia.
Most of the funding for the new building came from a $1.6 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for rural health clinics in medically under-served localities. The loan package included a $50,000 grant.
Hamilton told the crowd at yesterday's opening ceremony: "Everybody here contributed something to make this dream come true. Congratulations to you all for living in a community that makes a miracle like this possible."
"We're going to have great, healthy babies and great, healthy mommies," said center President Shirley Dodson-McAdoo.
"About the only thing I don't see here today is the wall with the pictures of all the babies," said state Health Commissioner Dr. Karen Rembley.
The maternity center officially opens Tuesday. The babies and pictures will soon follow.
Frank Delano: 804/761-4300
Email: fpdelano@gmail.com
