MercyOne North Iowa Birth Center

Our birth center team ensures you and your baby are getting the very best care by collaborating with your care team. Should your baby need specialized care, we offer a Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), staffed 24-hours by pediatric hospitalists and highly trained neonatal intensive care RNs.

Care team members could include these specialists:

• Obstetrician
• Family Medicine Physician  
• Family Medicine Resident Physician  
• Electronic fetal monitoring certified nurses and providers
• Labor, delivery and post-partum nurses
• Lactation experts, including IBCLC and CLCs
• NICU nurses
• Pediatric Hospitalist Physician
• Pharmacists
• Respiratory therapists

Our International Board-Certification Lactation Consultant and certified lactation counselors are on site to assist with breastfeeding and/or using a breast pump. Additionally, our birth center is a Milk Depot, receiving breast milk donations through the Mother’s Milk Bank of Iowa. Donor breastmilk is available for our NICU babies and healthy newborns if needed.

Our advanced care team is prepared to assist with conditions that may arise with pregnancy. These can include breastfeeding challenges, gestational diabetes, miscarriage, postpartum depression, preterm labor, preeclampsia and stillbirth.

MercyOne Home Care provides in-home nursing for newborns, supporting you and your family for all your care needs. We specialize in pediatric skilled nursing care, neonatal care, ventilator and tracheotomy care, gastric feedings and infusion therapy. Skilled nursing visits provide education or training for those that are medically fragile. MercyOne Home Care provides short term intermittent visits to accelerate recovery at home.

Services and specialties:

• Access to our free MercyOne maternity app
• Breastfeeding and lactation care, including support groups
• Care for low- and high-risk pregnancies, deliveries, postpartum and newborns
• Delivery of multiples (twins)
• Family-centered maternity care
• Gentle cesarean section (c-section)
• Labor pain management including epidural and nitrous oxide
• Large, private rooms
• LDR birthing suites – labor, deliver and recover in one private suite, then move to another large, private suite for postpartum recovery
• Level II NICU
• Milk Depot
• Mother-baby nursing with 24hr rooming-in available
• Nurses trained in Spinning Babies techniques to help with successful vaginal delivery
• One-on-one education sessions and bathing demonstrations
• Operating room suites with recovery rooms on the same unit
• Pediatric hospitalists
• Physical therapy consults available for those interested in pelvic floor therapy
• Skin-to-skin on all healthy term deliveries
• Triage rooms
• Wireless fetal monitoring

Practices and interventions:

• Baby’s first bath
• Baby’s first health exam
• Blood sugar monitoring during labor and delivery for women with Type 1, Type 2 or gestational diabetes
• Depression screening
• Emergency c-section
• Epidural and/or nitrous oxide for pain control during labor
• External cephalic version to turn baby from breech to head down
• Labor induction
• Lactation consultation
• Neonatal resuscitation
• Newborn screenings (hearing, congenital cardiac heart disease, metabolic and jaundice)
• Oxygen support
• Skin-to-skin bonding on all healthy term deliveries

Amenities:

• 24-hour rooming in
• Aromatherapy
• Birthing balls
• Comfort cushions
• Donor breastmilk available
• Family-centered labor, delivery and postpartum care
• Free valet parking
• Hospital-grade breast pumps in every room
• Photo backdrop when sharing your baby news
• Private suites
• Refrigerators available for patient room use
• Room service with special menu items
• Specialized delivery rooms
• Warm blankets  

Our birth center is designed to provide a home-like, non-medical setting for your birth experience while still having access to advanced medical care in the event more specialized care is needed.

Nationally Certified Safe Sleep Hospital

MercyOne North Iowa Birth Center is recognized for following the safe sleep guidelines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and providing training programs for healthcare team members, and safe sleep education to family and caregivers.