Pella Regional Health Center held a ceremony to open the new Family Birthing Center on the 3rd floor of the hospital Sunday.

Chief Nursing Officer Yvonne O’Brien-Evans tells KNIA/KRLS News the facility was expanded upon after the obstetrics department saw rapid growth in the number of babies born at Pella Regional.

“We’ve been able to increase our birth rate significantly in the last several years,” she says. “It increased a couple years ago by 14 percent and again another ten percent [last year], and this year, we are on track to equal or go beyond our 539 births that we had last year.”

O’Brien-Evans says Pella Regional administrators and staff toured other birthing units in the Midwest to find best practices and technology for the new space, which has been under construction for one year.

“This is the third story of the hosptial, and we had always intended to build on top of the second story over top of Med Surge, and it has turned out to be the perfect layout for this unit,” she says. “Downstairs currently, we have four labor rooms and four postpartum rooms, and in this area, we will have seven labor-delivery-recovery rooms and three postpartum rooms…so it significantly increases our space.”

Additionally, the new Family Birthing Center includes additional space in the nursery and expanded nursing stations and waiting areas for families.

A blessing of the new space by Chaplin Jessica Margrave Schirm and a ribbon cutting ceremony with Family Practice Doctors and Obstetrics Staff were held Sunday afternoon. Pella Regional obstetrics staff led tours of the facility to 733 people, including expectant mothers and their families, following the ceremony.

Hear more about the new Family Birthing Center on today’s Let’s Talk Pella.