At St. David’s HealthCare, our newborn nurseries provide a safe, secure environment where physicians and nurses can assess the health of the new baby, check vital signs, and provide attentive care when mom needs to rest.
In most cases, babies stay with their mothers for the first hour following birth. After that, baby goes to the newborn nursery for additional assessments, to have footprints taken, and to get their first bath. Once these essentials are completed, babies return to their mothers for feeding.
Our maternity and newborn nurses work as a team to care for mother and infant, but each baby has their own newborn nurse who provides special attention to the new baby. All breast-feeding mothers also receive lactation counseling during their stay.
We know that family and friends often wish to share in the joy of your child’s birth, so we have regularly scheduled visiting hours. Our staff will also limit your visitors or phone calls upon request. To safeguard the health of your infant, all visitors should be illness free.
Safety and security in the newborn nursery are our top priority. St. David’s HealthCare uses a sophisticated security system that only allows nursery access to those people (typically the mother and father/support person) with appropriate authentication.