In October, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle’s maternity services nurses and doctors were busy.
They assisted in delivering 108 babies, or nearly four babies a day, which Dr. Pam Lacy said was the busiest month she had seen in her nearly 20 years as an OB-GYN at the hospital.
“It seems like this is beginning to be our new norm,” Lacy told The Dispatch.
Bradley Rhodes, director for women’s and pediatric services, said the record month put the hospital at 780 births so far this year, as of Monday. The staff expects to surpass its typical average of between 850 and 900 births by the end of the year, Rhodes said.
Melynn Presley, a registered nurse in labor and delivery, said nurses and doctors at Baptist typically help deliver between 70 and 80 babies a month. The record comes as Mississippi is experiencing its highest infant mortality rate in more than a decade.
Rhodes attributed part of the increase in October births to an influx of mothers seeking care from surrounding counties in maternity care deserts.
A maternity care desert is a county with a lack of access to maternity care services like hospitals, obstetrics providers or birthing services, according to March of Dimes, a nonprofit focused on maternal and infant health risks and death. More than half of Mississippi counties are considered maternity care deserts, the March of Dimes website said.
“We’re surrounded by (obstetrics) deserts,” Rhodes said. “… That is a lot of counties in our area, and so these patients have to seek care. And they are doing their research. They’re looking at what hospitals are … having the best outcomes, and they are able to see that (Baptist) provides that, and they want to come here to seek that care.”
The increase of mothers delivering at Baptist in October did present challenges for the hospital, especially with rescheduling planned inductions and a lack of available rooms. But the hospital remained committed to helping with as many safe deliveries as it could handle, Presley said.
“The challenge … was truly never understaffing,” Presley said. “We’ve been thankful to have enough staff and provide that safe care. But it was rooms and beds.”
Going forward, Rhodes said she expects the average number of monthly births at the hospital to remain at a similar number to those in October.
The high number of births, Rhodes said, is a good indication that mothers in the area are receiving the proper care they need, which will in turn contribute to decreasing Mississippi’s infant mortality rate going forward.
“We are really focused on that prenatal and preconception care,” Rhodes said. “And so the fact that they’re coming here to deliver means that they are seeking that prenatal care, and so they’re getting in the system, they’re seeing a physician, they’re having (a) hospital birth. Which in my opinion, is going to lead to better outcomes and lower infant mortality rates throughout the state.”
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