FEATURES | kdmc labor & delivery

Baby, oh baby!
Families welcome the opening
of King’s Daughters
Medical Center’s
Labor and Delivery Suites

A TEXT BY ROBYN JACKSON

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF JOHNNY RAINER

Angie Williamson looks forward to the party when the newly

renovated Women’s Center at Brookhaven’s King’s Daughters
Medical Center holds its grand opening. The project to update
the labor and delivery suites and nursery will be something
worth celebrating.
“It’s been 18 months and we’re still not done with the nurs-
ery,” Williamson said. “Hopefully we’re going to be in our
completed nursery by the first of April. When I’m sure every-
thing is finished, we’re going to have a big blow-out.”
An average of 700 babies are born at King’s Daughters
Medical Center each year. The hospital serves Lincoln County,
as well as parts of Pike, Lawrence, Franklin and Copiah.
The update is part of a much larger renovation project at
the hospital, said Johnny Rainer, chief development officer.
“The entire hospital renovation project was in excess of $12
million.”
Williamson, a Registered Nurse, supervises the Labor,
Delivery, Recovery and Post-Partum unit, or LBRP, for short. It
has nine fully-functioning suites with all new bedding and
medical equipment, including electronic monitoring and chart-
ing. “That makes the nurse more accessible to the patient,”
she said.
Williamson said KDMC had the first LDRP in the state, and
while some hospitals have gotten away from the model of
keeping the mother in one room from start to finish, “We still
do it the old-timey way,” she said. “We keep them in the same
room so that they don’t have to pack up and move to another
room after the baby is born.”
Because the new mother and her family spend so much time
in the suites - they have to stay for 36 hours after delivery, to
make sure everything is OK with mother and baby - Williamson
wanted the newly renovated rooms to have a warm, homey
feeling.
“I wanted to make it like a really exclusive bedroom,” she
said. She chose a soothing palate of mossy green and beige

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with maple hardwood floors and cabinetry. There’s a
comfortable rocker/recliner, as well as a sofa that
pulls out in case Dad wants to sleep there overnight.
There is also an LCD television in every room.
The attached bathrooms have also been renovated
and each has a garden tub. A lavatory has been
added to each room to make it handy for hand-wash-
ing without having to go into the bathroom.
“We have a place for everybody to come in and
wash their hands before they pick up your baby,”
she said.
Lighting is muted, so that it has more of a home
feeling, but there are also exam lights built into the
ceiling. “It has a really intense beam so the doctor
has enough light,” Williamson said.
There are also two observation rooms where
expectant moms can be watched prior to admission
to make sure they really are in labor.
“These are as well labor and delivery beds in case
we have to overflow,” Williamson said.
The babies can stay in the nursery down the hall,
which is staffed 24-hours a day, but King’s Daughters
also offers rooming-in, where the baby stays in the
same room with the mother, if that is preferred.
“We’re one of the last remaining 24-hour fully-
functional nurseries,” Williamson said. “We’ve got a
minimum of two nurses who are in there all night
long to do nothing but care for babies. In our new
nursery, once we get that construction completed,
we’ve enlarged it so we can have up to 20 well
babies in it.”
There is a fully-functioning operating room on the
floor, in case it’s needed. Doctors also administer
anesthesia themselves so they don’t have to wait for
an anesthesiologist to become available.
KDMC has four board-certified obstetrician/gyne-
cologists, a pediatric cardiologist and two board cer-
tified pediatricians, as well as a lactation consultant
to help mothers who are nursing.
The labor and delivery team had to move off their
floor during the 18-month renovation project, and
Williamson said they are glad to be home again.
“It’s so nice to be able to have our own showers
and tubs back,” Williamson said.
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