Despite decreasing birth rates throughout the U.S., the Marysville area is experiencing a baby boom.
During 2018, the Obstetrics team at Memorial Hospital’s Miracle Life Center delivered 7% more babies. Since 2016, the team has seen a 16% increase in births.
Ashley Boyer, Assistant Vice President and Nurse Executive at Memorial Hospital, said one of the reasons the hospital has seen such an increase stems from the fact that it draws patients from multiple regions. Aside from serving Union County, she said some of the primary regions they serve include Madison, Champaign and Logan Counties.
Lindsay Partee, OB Nursing Director for the Memorial Miracle Life Center, said she believes many women, even from outside of Marysville, choose to have their children at Memorial Hospital because of the customer service.
“We know we’re a smaller hospital, so to us, we take care of our own, our community,” Partee said. “We really want people to feel like they are the only person here.”
Boyer said the increase in births has led to the expansion of medical services that are provided. She said the Obstetrics unit has recently added a midwife from the OBGYN unit and has hired a full-time lactation consultant.
Additionally, Memorial Hospital is assisted by two on-call physicians from Marysville Primary Care. Their help is also supplemented several days a week by on-call physicians from Nationwide Children’s Hospital, a partnership that began this year.
“(The partnership) has been a great help in being able to extend those services and people really appreciate that,” Partee said.
Beyond quality medical care, Partee said she strives to provide the “little things” that ensure a positive experience for new moms. She said nurses in the obstetrics unit take pride in creating “personal, human touches” that might be overlooked at other hospitals.
For instance, Partee shared about the hospital’s “celebration meal” that is served to every new parent, complete with a white tablecloth and grape cider “champagne.”
She said personalized touches like these often lead mothers to have their next children at Memorial Hospital after their first child is born there. She said they also encourage other mothers to have their children there.
“(Expecting mothers) want a place where they feel comfortable and that they know somebody else who’s had a great experience,” Partee said.
Robin Coffey, Communications and PR Specialist at Memorial Hospital, said this translates to high customer satisfaction, as the Obstetrics service line has ranked in the top 4% or higher of hospitals nationwide since 2016.
Partee said quality care and high satisfaction are the reason why the hospital has been able to grow, a trend she feels is reflective of the community as a whole.
“We’ve always been this small, rural community but I think we actually are continuously growing and with that, we’re able to grow services we provide,” Partee said. “I think that’s nice for the community members to know, you don’t have to leave Union County to get great care.”