Officials at Provena Mercy Center in Aurora said they expect to provide the highest level of care in the Fox Valley for mothers and newborns next year now that a state agency has approved plans for their Family Birth Center.
Once completed by summer 1999, the facility will have 13 birthing rooms–known as labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum. or LDRP, suites. The suites will have such amenities as a whirlpool bath, television, videocassette recorder, rocking chair, refrigerator and pull-out sleeper couch for a mother’s “support person.”
“We’ve conducted consumer research and talked to scores of women in the area about what they’d like in a hospital birthing experience,” said Laurel Ann Peterson, the director of women’s services at the hospital and a registered nurse. “Overwhelmingly, they chose the LDRP, or single-room birthing, concept.”
Once the renovation is complete, the hospital plans to seek a Level II+ status, which would allow the hospital to treat sicker babies than it can under its current Level II designation, said Jeanne B. Larson, the hospital’s manager of marketing and public relations.
Provena Mercy’s plan was approved in June by the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which gave the hospital the green light to begin construction. The facility is expected to cost about $5.7 million to build.
By early 1999, 10 suites and the examination rooms will be completed. By summer 1999, three more suites, a classroom and overnight-stay rooms for parents with babies who need additional care will be finished.
