Wednesday, February 03, 1999
Storks frequent fliers at St. Elizabeth
BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
EDGEWOOD — They must know a little something about birthing babies.
More than 3,000 times last year, nurses and doctors at St. Elizabeth Medical Center brought bundles of joy into the world — 3,058 to be exact. Never before had the facility topped 3,000.
That's more than eight babies every day, or one about every three hours.
The number makes the hospital the busiest for babies in Northern Kentucky and third most baby-prolific in Greater Cincinnati, behind consistent leaders Good Samaritan (5,000) and Christ (3,400) hospitals.
As for the boomlet at St. Elizabeth, a review of records by Toni Stormer, Family Birth Place nurse manager, showed no one month stood out. Each one simply saw more new faces than the same month in 1997.
One day popped up, however — a day in May when 28 babies were delivered in 24 hours.
“I guess you just have to count back nine months and see what was going on then,” she said, laughing.
She attributed the increase to new development in Northern Kentucky's suburbs and increase in other new arrivals — people working for relocated businesses such as Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Inc. in Erlanger and Ashland Inc. in Covington.
“We do have a lot of growth going on in the area,” she said. “And I guess that translates into more babies.”
All St. Elizabeth births take place at the Edgewood hospital. The unit moved there from the Covington facility in 1986.
Since then, the hospital has marketed its Family Birth Place heavily, trying to keep Northern Kentucky mothers-to-be from having their babies at Cincinnati hospitals. That former trend is now declining, she said.
The hospital has 26 beds, 20 of them LDRPs, meaning the mother stays in the same room for labor, delivery, recovery and post-partum. That's a big attraction, Ms. Stormer said.
The Catholic hospital loses some business, she said, because it refuses on religious grounds to do tubal ligations. Many women want the sterilization procedure just after a birth.
Although the hospital recognizes some of the groundwork to generate more babies is, well, out of its control, Ms. Stormer said the staff would like to go for another record.
“It's a very rewarding area to work in,” she said. “It really is a miracle.”
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