Forum Health is Celebrating Multiples

BOARDMAN The Forum Health Women and Infants Pavilion at Beeghly Medical Park is celebrating multiple-birth pregnancy and delivery experiences.

On Friday, November 4th, from 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m., the pavilion will host an open house entitled “Celebrating Multiples,” offering educational information to expectant mothers of multiple-birth babies. It will include information on how to care for more than one baby.

“Celebrating Multiples” will be held in the Building C Community Room of the Beeghly Medical Park and light refreshments will be served. It is open to any multiple-birth mother-to-be, as well as mothers of newly-born triplets. Physician and nursing staff members are encouraged to come and meet the families.

“We want to offer helpful information on infant care, breastfeeding and many other issues facing mothers of triplets or multiples,” said Pamela Edenfield, Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist and Lactation Consultant at the pavilion.

Right now, there are such mother-to-be inpatients at the pavilion, which welcomed three sets of triplets since its May opening.

“What makes these births unique is the fact that the mothers are progressing in their pregnancies further than the typical multiple-birth gestation,” said Sayed El-Azeem, M.D. a board-certified high-risk obstetrician with offices in Boardman and Warren.

El-Azeem has cared for many high-risk multiple-birth pregnancies at the Women and Infants Pavilion and said the facility is a state-of-the-art neonatal care center.

Dr. Firas Saker, Director of Neonatology, along with a team of full and part-time neonatologists, nurses, respiratory therapists and a nurse practitioner with high-risk neonatal experience, provides expert care in the Neonatal Unit.

Multiple gestation infants usually deliver prematurely, which put them at a high-risk category.

“For the last three years, we are seeing tremendous outcomes for extremely low birth-weight babies that are well-beyond the national average,” he said.

Thats why Forum Health is presenting “Celebrating Multiples.”

“The event will be an opportunity for women to gain invaluable information and for our neonatal staff to interact with longer-term patients, as well as to see pictures of multiples we delivered who are now doing well at home,” she said.

A recent survey by the March of Dimes Birth Defect Foundation shows a significant increase in multiple gestations in the past several years. It also stated that women pregnant with multiples face increased risk of pregnancy-related health problems and that multiple-birth babies typically weigh less and are generally born ahead of the standard 40-week gestational period.

Unsurprisingly, Edenfield said that the pavilion is seeing an increasing number of multiple-birth pregnancies.

“We are in the process of establishing a formal high-risk program that will include providing the use of laptops, books and videos to inpatients, as well as other services and programs to help them before and after childbirth,” she said.

“I try to make contact with these moms early in their pregnancies, to assess their needs and provide what theyll need regarding long-term bed rest and the other very special needs they face,” said Edenfield.
The Women and Infants Pavilion is specifically-designed to handle multiple-birth pregnancies and deliveries, as well as to provide premature infant neonatal care.

Kimberly Howe of Liberty delivered two baby girls and a bouncing baby boy at the pavilion on June 12th, after having been put on bed rest due to pregnancy complications including pre-term labor, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and placenta previa.

“We had three board-certified neonatologists, a perinatologist, an anesthesiologist and a neonatal nurse practitioner in the delivery room with us. There were six physicians attending me; it was a true team effort,” said Howe, whose pregnancy lasted 34 weeks.

Edenfield said Howe, who is also a Forum Health nurse, has been consulted regarding the organization of the High-Risk program at the pavilion.

“We want to be sure to meet all of the special needs of our multiple-birth moms, from lactation-consulting to social work issues to nutrition; were here to help with the entire process from pregnancy through bringing the little bundles home and what to d o once you get there,” she said.

The neonatal unit at the Women and Infants Pavilion is an extension of Forum Health Tod Childrens Hospital and offers the most advanced technological maternity, neonatal and childbirth services in the region. Form more information on the Women and Infants Pavilion at Beeghly Medical Park, call 1-800-842-9727.