Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist opened the doors to The Birth Center and The Dale and Karen Sisel Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in July 2019.
Since opening The Birth Center five years ago, more than 14,600 babies were born and nearly 3,600 babies have been cared for in the Level IV NICU (the highest possible designation). In addition, several new services have been added, including gynecological surgery; NEST - Nurse Education Support Team, a team of health care professionals who provide postpartum follow-up home visits; and Deacon Doulas, trained, volunteer birth companions who provide physical and emotional support during childbirth at no cost to patients.
The Birth Center is recognized by Newsweek as a Best Maternity Hospital, providing exceptional care for both parents and babies while consistently meeting high standards for safety and quality. The Sisel NICU is one of the largest and most comprehensive intensive care nurseries with single patient rooms in the state.
“We were thrilled when we opened the doors to provide a state-of-the-art labor and delivery center with a new and expanded neonatal intensive care unit to our community and families across our region,” said Alisa Starbuck, president of Atrium Health Levine Children’s Brenner Children’s Hospital and vice president of women’s and children’s health services at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. “Thousands of babies have been delivered and cared for over the past five years, but more importantly, families have grown and left with memories that will last a lifetime, while receiving care close to home.”
As the only health system in the region with specialists in both fertility and high-risk pregnancies, The Birth Center also offers the region’s only complete midwifery program, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, breastfeeding support and access to the full range of maternity services.
“As a former NICU nurse and mother, I understand what happens before and after birth is just as important as labor and delivery,” Starbuck said. “That is why we partnered with patient advisors and did extensive research to make sure this was designed as an exciting experience for expectant moms and a place with tools to be able to teach, prepare and offer as many resources as possible.”
While Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has been caring for families for more than 100 years, the medical center focused on the most complex, high-risk births - not routine deliveries - from the mid-1970s until 2019.
“The opening of The Birth Center in 2019 was a bold step forward and enabled us to add routine, low-risk deliveries to better meet the growing needs of our communities and our region,” Starbuck said.
The Birth Center is located on the two top floors of the medical center. The 11th floor includes nine triage rooms, four preparation and recovery rooms and four OB-GYN procedure rooms. There are 17 labor and delivery rooms, four of which are designed for an alternative delivery experience with 24/7 in house certified nurse midwives to offer a more home-like setting.
Across the hall from The Birth Center is the Dale and Karen Sisel NICU with 80 private patient rooms, five of which are reserved for twins. The Sisel NICU originally included 51 private rooms, with two reserved for twins, but the extra rooms were added over the past five years to meet the increasing needs.
The 10th floor houses 40 maternity and post-maternity patient rooms - 10 of which were added over the past five years - with two larger rooms for twins and two double-size rooms with special amenities. There is also a special room where adoptive parents and their babies meet to bond and begin their new lives together.
Each floor has its own respite area for on-call physicians and staff that offers a nearby place to rest so they can quickly respond when needed.
“The Birth Center has served the community over the past five years as a serene, safe and comfortable space for expecting moms and families and I can’t wait to see how we continue to grow in the next five years and beyond,” Starbuck said.
Media contacts:
Jenna Kurzyna, jkurzyna@wakehealth.edu; Joe McCloskey, jmcclosk@wakehealth.edu