Labor and delivery

HCA Midwest Health offers four hospitals across the Kansas City region that offer advanced childbirth care and support that makes more moms choose us for their babies' first days. Our modern birthing centers and suites are equipped with an array of amenities designed to keep new and expecting moms and their family members as comfortable as possible. Our patients may benefit from:

• Fertility services to help you start your family
• OB/GYN and midwives to care for you and your baby before, during and after pregnancy

• A Maternity Concierge Navigator who will lead you on a childbirth tour and help guide you through the childbirth process including creating a birth plan unique to your needs
• In-person and online childbirth classes

• Customizable amenities for your labor and delivery, so you can design a birth plan that caters directly to your needs
• Spacious, private maternity and birthing suites
• Low intervention birthing options, including wireless monitoring, nitrous oxide, peanut balls and more
• Specialized care for mothers and babies going through a high-risk pregnancy

• Early bonding with your baby, including support for skin-to-skin contact
• Lactation consultants to guide the breastfeeding experience. After you go home, you can take advantage of a free breastfeeding support group
• Photography services
• Web nurseries at several hospitals
• Rooming in vs. nursery options for families
• Access to high-level NICUs. Babies born prematurely and/or with serious health conditions can receive specialized neonatal intensive care. HCA Midwest Health offers four expert neonatal intensive care units including a Level III NICU at Overland Park Regional Medical Center that includes a Small Baby Unit for babies born under 29 weeks.

Our birthing centers and suites are equipped with an array of amenities designed to keep new and expecting moms and their family members as comfortable as possible. Our hospitals offer private, comfortable rooms with a soothing and homelike environment. An array of amenities are available including spa tubs for labor, flexible visiting hours, virtual nurseries to view newborn, photography services, a special celebratory meal and more.

Our teams strive to support your decisions regarding the type of childbirth experience you desire. Our labor and delivery teams partner with your OB/GYN or midwife to help provide as much or as little intervention as possible.

We follow all national standards for monitoring your and your baby's well-being during labor and delivery. Our board-certified physicians and midwives are available to counsel you and provide you with a safe and special birth experience.

Our hospitals also offer low intervention options including:

• Aromatherapy/essential oils
• Birth balls/peanut balls
• Birthing bars
• Delayed cord clamping
• Hydrotherapy
• Labor tubs
• Meditation
• Nitrous oxide
• Wireless monitoring

Baby has lots of choices, too! Here are a few options designed for the comfort and safety of you and your baby.

• Partner can sleep in room
• Flexible visiting hours
• Quiet time for bonding with baby
• Enhanced infant security
• Baby can room-in or go to the nursery

Midwifery services are provided by certified nurse-midwives who specialize in low-intervention births for mothers with low-risk pregnancies. HCA Midwest Health offers a large network of certified nurse-midwives, which helps us provide our patients access to the birthing experience they desire with the added safety of a full hospital staff.

Our midwives help customize birth plans, facilitate father-assisted births and guide breastfeeding during the early postpartum period. You may enjoy working with a midwife if you would like to experience childbirth as naturally as possible.

The safety and security of our patients is a top priority. Our hospitals take several steps to keep mom and baby safe, including:

All family members and other visitors in our infant and child areas must check in at the nurse's station and wear a visitor ID badge/sticker. Hospital employees will identify themselves verbally and must wear an official hospital photo ID badge at all times.

All nurses who care for infants and children have unique scrubs specific to their area.

After delivery, a security band will be placed on your infant’s ankle. Your nurse will remove it just before you are discharged from the facility. Your birth partner will also be given an ID band. When a staff member brings your baby to you, your baby's band will be matched to your band. The bands will not be removed until you get home, so only the two of you will be allowed to come to the nursery to get your baby.

The delivering hospitals of HCA Midwest Health are at the forefront of maternal health and safety. By implementing the Post-Birth Alert Orange Bracelet Program for our delivering moms, we can create a quick-response process to identify at-risk postpartum patients who may need treatment.

Each postpartum mom is provided an orange bracelet upon discharge to be worn on their wrist for eight to 12 weeks. The orange bracelet gives providers a visual cue to quickly assess and provide treatment for high-risk problems that can commonly occur following delivery such as:

• Hypertensive disorder in pregnancy and after – preeclampsia or eclampsia
• Venous thromboembolism, or blood clots
• Sepsis
• Cardiomyopathy, the thickening of the heart’s walls
• Perinatal depression
• Substance use disorder

Whether you're pregnant with twins (or more!) or need guidance on navigating a complex pregnancy, our maternal-fetal medicine team is with you every step of the way. When you're classified as a high-risk pregnancy, you want to know you're in the care of experts who can handle any circumstances affecting you or your unborn child. Mothers-to-be receive comprehensive care from a multidisciplinary team that includes a nurse navigator, maternal-fetal medicine, pediatric specialists, genetic counseling, neonatology and social work. Our comprehensive care includes:

• Maternal-fetal medicine physicians available 24/7 - to support high-risk pregnancies and deliver premature or critically ill newborns
• The largest dedicated high-risk antepartum unit in the region with more adult specialists treating expecting moms around the clock
• Over 175 specialists, including maternal-fetal medicine specialists, neonatologists, neonatal nurse practitioners, registered nurses, respiratory therapists, family support social workers, lactation consultants, registered dietitians and pediatric specialty doctors such as cardiologists, surgeons and neurologists
• Four neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) – a unit at each of our maternity hospitals, including a Small Baby Unit for babies born under 29 weeks.

A dedicated maternal and neonatal transport service to safely transfer you or your baby to a higher level of care. Expectant mothers can be transferred to Overland Park Regional Medical Center and infants can be transferred to any of our high-level NICUs from any hospital within an approximate 100-mile radius.