PHILADELPHIA — After three years of renovations and new construction, Pennsylvania Hospital of Penn Medicine will unveil its new Well Mother & Baby Unit on February 26. The hospital, where nearly 5,000 babies are delivered each year – the most in the City of Philadelphia – will now offer three full floors of all private rooms dedicated solely to new mothers and their newborns.
The opening of the new unit is part of Pennsylvania Hospital’s (PAH) $61 million long-range facility master plan. “Pennsylvania Hospital has a long history as a premier hospital for obstetrical services in Philadelphia, so we’re really excited to expand our offerings by providing private rooms to all of our maternity patients,” said R. Michael Buckley, MD, the hospital’s executive director.
PAH is the first hospital in the City of Philadelphia to offer all private maternity suites. Mothers and their babies progress to Well Mother & Baby private rooms following their labor and delivery. Each new suite offers contemporary and comfortable furniture, soft colors, subdued lighting, a flat screen television, and a spacious restroom layout with an open shower stall. New suites also include a full-sized convertible sofa sleeper to provide overnight accommodations for a family member or friend, combination safes to secure personal belongings, and charging stations for mobile devices.
The new postpartum units complement PAH's Labor & Delivery unit, which also offers private, rooms, including birthing suites for women seeking natural and low-intervention childbirth experiences. In planning for the new private rooms, hospital administrators sought feedback from hospital staff, physicians, and patients through design sessions, mock-up room tours, and surveys. “Through this vital feedback, we were able to create a patient room that provides the best experience for patients, staff, and visitors alike from a safety, ergonomic, and aesthetic perspective,” Buckley said.
The new Well Mother & Baby Unit was tailored to meet the needs of all families. A Well Baby Nursery is centrally located on the unit, as well as convenient waiting areas for family and friends. There are also specially designated rooms for adoptive families and families whose babies are born via gestational carriers.
The new private maternity rooms also help support PAH’s and Penn Medicine’s commitment to the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI). The BFHI is a global effort supported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Surgeon General, and the American Academy of Pediatrics to improve the care of pregnant women, mothers, and infants by ensuring all mothers have the information they need to make the best infant feeding decisions and by providing the help they need to meet their feeding goals.
“A private room environment will enhance the ‘rooming in’ experience and facilitate moms and babies staying together. While we will always have an in-unit nursery to provide additional support to new mothers who need it, we fully encourage ‘rooming in,’” said Jack Ludmir, MD, chair of the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at PAH and vice chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. The new rooms will support patient’s wishes for privacy and help us to provide the best total obstetric experience from delivery to discharge.”
A major step in making private rooms a reality at PAH was the opening of Penn Medicine Washington Square, the hospital’s outpatient facility at 8th and Walnut Streets, which opened in September of 2013, and houses all PAH OB/GYN provider practices. PAH opened the first of its all private room units, dedicated primarily to surgical patients, in December 2013. Over the next several years, PAH plans to continue renovations and construction of additional private rooms throughout the main hospital complex and its Spruce Building.
In addition to the new Well Mother & Baby Unit, Pennsylvania Hospital offers a full array of obstetrical services, from conception to discharge from the hospital following childbirth.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.