WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital provides a homelike Maternity Center and special programs and services to help families get off to a good start. From our charming facility and warm and caring staff, to childbirth classes and sibling preparation programs, WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital is dedicated to supporting new moms, infants and their families.
About Our Facility
The WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital Maternity Center has been designed with your needs in mind. We have four labor, delivery, recovery rooms that are state-of-the art, yet have a comfortable setting of home. Our seven private, postpartum rooms also have many special touches. In addition, we have a 16-bassinet nursery.
During your stay, you and your family will have free access to the Newborn Channel. Available 24/7, the channel provides educational programs on a variety of topics related to becoming a new parent. The programming is available in English and Spanish and close-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing patients.
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Family-centered Maternity Care
We strive to provide family centered maternity care for those people who choose to start or continue their families at WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital. Family-centered maternity care encourages family formation, allows for educational opportunities by the staff, promotes breastfeeding and provides professional assistance during a period of family adjustment. We encourage skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth; breastfeeding within one hour after birth; non-separation of mother and baby; participation in care by members of the family, as parents desire; and procedures such as hearing test, PKU and lab tests to be done in the mothers room. Nursery facilities are available if needed; however, studies have shown that parents rest better with babies in their room. Our rooms are welcoming and equipped for a support person to remain with the couple at all times.
About Our Care Team
When your special day arrives, you'll want experienced, caring nurses to help you. Our nurses will do everything possible to make the coming of parenthood a beautiful experience. Many of our nurses have a variety of skills and experiences, including:
- Childbirth education
- Knowledge of many types of comfort measures and the ability to teach your family members how to comfort and support you
- Education on high-risk pregnancies
When Special Care is Needed
There are times when delivering a baby isn't as simple as everyone would wish. For these circumstances, WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital has the staff, expertise and technologies to address your needs and help you understand what is happening and why.
Should you require a Cesarean delivery, you will be moved to a state-of-the art operating room located within close proximity of labor and deliver.
If your baby requires extra attention, we will work closely with the neonatologists (physicians who specialize in newborn medicine) at WellSpan York Hospital to ensure that your baby gets the care needed. Should your baby need to be admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), rest assured that WellSpan York Hospital's NICU offers state-of-the-art care for premature and critically ill newborns. In fact, WellSpan York Hospital is the only health care facility in the area offering this highly specialized service.
Getting Off to a Healthy Start
We recognize the importance of mother/infant bonding time directly after childbirth, so we delay routine nursing tasks to allow for one or two hours of skin-to-skin contact. When you're ready, your nurse will:
- Measure baby's weight and length
- Assist you with breastfeeding, if this is how you choose to feed your baby
- Give your baby his/her first bath
- Observe your baby for the first two hours of his/her life
If you have a Cesarean delivery, these tasks will be done in your patient room. We encourage a support person to do skin-to-skin contact with your new baby for at least one hour to help your newborn make a smooth transition into his/her new environment.
Soon after birth, your baby will have his/her first blood test. Pennsylvania law requires that all babies be tested for a variety of metabolic diseases including PKU, Hypothyroidism, Sickle Cell Disease, and Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD). A supplemental newborn screening will occur at the same time as the PKU blood test. This program is designed to extend the screening process to include additional potentially treatable or manageable disorders.
Your baby will also be examined by a physician within the first 24 hours of life. You should choose and become acquainted with a pediatrician or family physician during your pregnancy. If you are in need of a physician, call the WellSpan HealthSource at (717) 851-3500 or (800) 840-5905.
Feeding Needs
Our nurses are specialists in caring for you and your baby. They will help and support your choice of infant feeding and are available 24-hours-a-day to answer your questions. We also have a certified lactation consultant to help with breastfeeding while you're in the hospital and after you return home.
Postpartum Services
The birth of a child can be a joyous and exciting time, but following childbirth, some women may experience postpartum disorders that can adversely affect a woman's mental health. Most times, the "baby blues" last for only a few weeks and usually disappear on their own. However, if the symptoms don't lessen after a few weeks or if they're so severe that they interfere with your ability to complete everyday tasks you may have a more severe form of depression, called postpartum depression, that requires medical treatment.
WellSpan offers a resource for new mother's struggling with post partum issues. We have a dedicated postpartum nurse available to provide the resources and support that you need to move beyond the baby blues. To contact our postpartum nurse, please call (717) 851-4305 or (800) 540-7684 or email at wmcdowell@wellspan.org
Take a Tour
There's no better way to learn about our personalized maternity services than to see for yourself. We invite you to take a personal tour of our facilities. We think you'll find us well suited to give you and your baby the best, right from the beginning. Call the Maternity Center at (717) 337-4184 to schedule a tour.
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