Mayfield Heights, Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital has added four low-intervention birthing suites for low-risk women who prefer minimal medical intervention, according to an April 18 report from NBC affiliate WKYC.
About twelve certified nurse midwives work at the hospital to handle deliveries in the suites, which are extra-large rooms and include tubs for stress and pain relief. If patients already have a midwife, they can assist, though only staff certified nurse midwives on staff can handle deliveries.
"Hospitals scare a lot of people, and it would be great if everybody can deliver at home, but they can't," Sherisse Johnston, a certified nurse midwife at Hillcrest, told the news outlet. "What we have here is different. It's nice, because we have the best of both worlds. We have this low intervention space area, but we also have highly skilled physicians that are right here at our beck and call if something happens."
The hospital invested in the birthing suites after looking at patient data and seeing about 300 patients who sought this type of delivery were traveling about 30 miles west to the birth center at Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital.