The Birth Place at Community Hospital
The Birth Place at Community Hospital has been proudly delivering greatness since 2016! This unit is an eight bed LDRP which includes Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum Care. This is significant because once a patient enters the hospital they will remain in the same room they delivered in until they are discharged without having to move to a different floor or unit.
Please call 970-644-3369 to schedule a tour.
Birthing Plan
Each LDRP has a private jetted soaking tub to be used as hydrotherapy in assisting with natural pain relief. We also utilize birthing balls and aromatherapy to enhance the non-medicated pain relief experience. For those who do want medicated pain relief, we have 24-hour on call anesthesiologists to place epidurals and utilize nitrous oxide, a method of pain diversion therapy.
Our state-of-the-art facility promotes breastfeeding and bonding as one of the most important steps to motherhood. We utilize the “Golden Hour” where all babies and moms remain skin to skin until the first breastfeed has occurred. Furthermore, we have created a space that is large enough in the LDRPs that moms and babies never have to be separated.
We offer lactation consults, birthing classes and private tours of the unit. Our highly qualified staff of registered nurses, labor techs, obstetricians, neonatal nurse practitioners and certified nurse-midwives will tailor each patient’s birth to be a safe, meaningful and individualized experience.
Pain Management
Community Hospital strives to make your birth experience exactly what you desire it to be. A wide variety of pain management options are available to all of our patients.
Natural pain relief modalities: Each room is equipped with a whirl pool tub for hydrotherapy. Patients may choose to get into the tub for pain management in between monitoring of the baby and mother. Our spa like atmosphere with battery operated candles, aromatherapy options, and an unlimited supply of hot water make this an option of choice for many expectant mothers.
Labor balls are also available upon request and all of our nurses are skilled at applying sacral pressure and massage to help relive the back pain that some patients experience.
Birthing balls also help widen the pelvis to allow the baby to come down more effectively. (Link to Labor Ball)
Squat bars are also available for those patients who feel like this decreases pain during pushing. (Link to squat bars)
Nitrous Oxide: Nitrous Oxide is a gas used for labor pain. A mixture of 50% nitrous gas and 50% oxygen is inhaled through a mask. Inhaling the nitrous about 45 seconds before the contraction starts helps the maximum effect of the nitrous take place at the peak of the contraction. Nitrous is self-administered by the laboring mother and most patients find it to be very effective both in early labor and as the body begins to change later in labor. Nitrous oxide is cleared through the lungs so after the patient stops inhaling the nitrous it clears for the mothers system immediately with no effect on the baby. There are only a handful of hospitals that offer this method of pain relief and we are excited to be able to make it available to you!
Narcotic analgesics: Narcotic analgesics are medications that are administered through an IV for pain relief. Most narcotics are effective for about 30-45 minutes. They make the patient drowsy, they take the edge off of the contractions but do not entirely eliminate contractions. Narcotic analgesics do cross the placenta and there is an effect on the baby. Timing of administering a narcotic analgesic is important but your nurses, midwives, and doctors are very skilled at determining when to give the medication. Laboring mothers report this is sometimes “all the medication they need to get through the last little part of labor.”
Epidural Anesthesia: An epidural is a medication that is placed in the patients back. A tiny catheter is left in the epidural space in the back that allows medication to be continuously administered until it is removed after delivery. Although it does not eliminate all of the pain during delivery it is very effective in eliminating the pain of contractions. Unlike a narcotic, the medication does not cross the placenta so there is no effect on the baby.