Birth Center

With the Santa Ynez Mountains to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south, our new (2012) hospital was recently voted one of the most beautiful in the country. Built in the Spanish Colonial style with artwork from local artists decorating the halls, it feels more like a home than a hospital.

That feeling continues in the Birth Center where our rooms have a plentiful amount of space and natural light from picture windows with mountain and skyline views.

Birthing Room Features

Each of the Birthing Rooms has a recliner, a rocking chair, and a sofa to compliment the birthing bed with a generous number of pillows for comfort. You will labor, birth, and recover (for the first 1-2 hours) in the Birthing Room. An all-RN, specialty-trained staff will care for you throughout your labor and birth.

The Birthing Rooms also have the state-of-the art equipment to care for your newborn as needed. The surgical suites include two operating rooms specifically for obstetrics and a post-anesthesia recovery room (PACU).

Coping Techniques

Coping techniques and relief of labor’s pain is offered in a variety of ways: position changes, walking on one of our beautiful outside terraces, physical therapy (or “birthing” balls), and our Jacuzzi tubs for hydrotherapy and labor support from your nurse and others you’ve invited to your birth.

We also have analgesia (“pain medication”) available in the form of intravenous medication and epidural analgesia performed by one of our skilled anesthesiologists should you desire it.

Skin-to-Skin Contact

We encourage skin-to-skin contact and bonding immediately following both vaginal and Cesarean births. The majority of women birthing in our facility are “low risk” and have healthy newborns.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (2005) and the World Health Organization offer research-based guidelines regarding skin-to-skin and the importance of the “golden hour” following birth.

• Healthy infants should be placed immediately onto mom’s chest when they are born and remain in direct skin-to-skin contact until the first feeding is accomplished.
• The first physical assessment should be performed while the infant remains on mom’s chest.
• Weighing and measuring should wait until after the first feeding.
• The baby can remain with the parents throughout the recovery period.

If you or your baby need additional care and support for any “at risk” situations that are known or develop during labor and birth, skin-to-skin contact will be initiated as soon as possible.

Newborn Team

A newborn team is available for each birth and attends every Cesarean birth and at-risk delivery. The equipment to initially care for a preterm or sick infant is available in Birth Center. If your baby requires a higher level of attention, he or she will be cared for in our onsite Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Birth Center Visitors

We welcome your visitors to the Birth Center for your support any time but ask that you limit the number to three at one time for safety and privacy of all patients. We also encourage that you take advantage of the “golden first hour” following birth to be alone with your baby to provide skin-to-skin bonding and early breastfeeding while the baby is most alert for those first 24 hours of life.