{"id":132300,"date":"2024-06-30T18:12:24","date_gmt":"2024-06-30T22:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=132300"},"modified":"2024-06-30T18:12:24","modified_gmt":"2024-06-30T22:12:24","slug":"st-lukes-bucking-the-declining-birth-rate-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=132300","title":{"rendered":"St. Luke\u2019s Bucking the Declining-Birth Rate Trend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured Image: Colette Harrar was the Network\u2019s 5,000th<\/sup> baby of Fiscal Year 2024, arriving on June 26, at 10:49 p.m., at St. Luke\u2019s Allentown Campus in its new Labor and Delivery Unit. With mom, Ellen Harrar, of Kutztown.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While many health systems across Pennsylvania have been experiencing a decrease in newborn deliveries over the past five years, St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network (SLUHN) is trending in the opposite direction as more mothers choose St. Luke\u2019s for their prenatal care and deliveries than ever before.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
St. Luke\u2019s staff celebrate the Network\u2019s 5000th baby of the Network\u2019s Fiscal Year 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the first time in the Network\u2019s history, a total of more than 5,000 babies were born at St. Luke\u2019s three birthing hospitals during a fiscal year, which ends June 30. The figure surpassed Fiscal Year 2023\u2019s total of 4,700 births, which itself was a new high.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis major milestone reflects our patients\u2019 trust in, and desire for, the special care and expertise they experience in our labor and delivery suites at St. Luke\u2019s Allentown, Anderson and Upper Bucks campuses,\u201d said Elizabeth Dierking, MD, chair of the Department of OBGYN.<\/p>\n

Tiny Colette Harrar became number 5,000, arriving on June 26, at 10:49 p.m., at St. Luke\u2019s Allentown Campus in its new Labor and Delivery Unit. The 20-inch long, 7-pound, 11.5-ounce infant is the daughter of Kutztown residents Glenn and Ellen Harrar, and the little sister of their daughter Harper.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really like St. Luke\u2019s,\u201d said Ellen. \u201cThis is a beautiful facility, and the care is phenomenal and very professional.\u201d Two other babies were born at this hospital on the same day.<\/p>\n

Harper was born at another hospital, but the Harrars chose to switch to St. Luke\u2019s after hearing great stories from friends about the care there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking for something new, and this was a wonderful experience,\u201d said Ellen, who vowed to return to St. Luke\u2019s if she would become pregnant with a third child.<\/p>\n

Hospitals in Northeast Pennsylvania are seeing a decline or flattening of their birth rates, consistent with the rest of Pennsylvania and the nation, according to\u00a0https:\/\/www.health.pa.gov\/topics\/HealthStatistics\/VitalStatistics\/BirthStatistics\/Pages\/birth-statistics.aspx<\/a>.<\/p>\n

US birth rates are predicted to decline throughout the remainder of the 21st century, from 10.8 births per 1,000 people in 2023 to 8.5 per 1,000 in 2100, according to\u00a0usafacts.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis trend is happening throughout Pennsylvania and in most of the country, but not at St. Luke\u2019s,\u201d added Dr. Dierking.<\/p>\n

More babies have been born at St. Luke\u2019s than at any other health system in the Lehigh Valley. The Network\u2019s reputation for quality fetal, maternal and pediatric care has spread by word of mouth. It was voted as the Morning Call Readers\u2019 Choice for the Best Place to Have a Baby.<\/p>\n

In response to popular demand, the Network earlier this year opened a new and expanded Labor and Delivery unit in its Women & Babies Pavilion at its St. Luke\u2019s Allentown Campus, doubling the size of its original unit. The first babies were born in this new facility on Valentine\u2019s Day; to date 577 births have taken place there.<\/p>\n

This new addition increases the community\u2019s access to high-quality birthing, post-partum and newborn services, including neonatal intensive care.<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s puts its money where its moms are, leading the region in opening new hospital-based labor and delivery units, and expanding other sites and services focused on women\u2019s health. In addition to the Allentown Women & Babies Pavilion, St. Luke\u2019s Upper Bucks Campus began delivering babies in 2022, following the St. Luke\u2019s Anderson Campus, which launched its birthing program during the COVID pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo grow our capacity, and keep our commitment to our community, for meeting the needs of women of all ages, St. Luke\u2019s has invested $250 million in women\u2019s health facilities, programs and expert staffing,\u201d said Nicole Nye, Network Vice President of Operations. In addition to the three new Women & Babies Pavilions at their hospitals, the Network opened five new outpatient women\u2019s health practices in the region: two in Easton, two in Upper Bucks and the Valley\u2019s only OBGYN office where Spanish is spoken exclusively, in Allentown.<\/p>\n

Fifteen new obstetric\/gynecologists have joined the network since 2020, and plans to bring on five more within the next two years as the need for these specialists grows. Its four-year obstetrics\/gynecology residency trains 24 new doctors per year at its Allentown and Anderson campuses.<\/p>\n

Expectant mothers and couples are attracted to St. Luke\u2019s for prenatal and postnatal care, and the delivery of their babies, by the small and intimate practices and care teams that provide patients the personalized care they seek, including having the same doctor (team) follow them throughout pregnancy and delivery.\u00a0 Most other hospitals don\u2019t offer\/guarantee this convenience to their pregnant patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur patients tell us they seek a St. Luke\u2019s provider\/practice for the convenience and quality of their pregnancy and birthing experience, which isn\u2019t a common practice in most other networks,\u201d said Dr. Dierking. St. Luke\u2019s \u201cBaby and Me\u201d program, offered at all three campuses, ensures highly personalized prenatal and postpartum care, in addition to lactation education and support, behavioral health care and expertise for high-risk pregnancies. All labor and delivery units feature 24\/7\/365 neonatology services ensuring the highest level of advanced care available for complex pregnancies and births and critically ill babies.<\/p>\n

In May, St. Luke\u2019s Labor and Delivery Unit and Obstetric Anesthesia Service at St. Luke\u2019s Anderson Campus was designated as Pennsylvania\u2019s third (and the Valley\u2019s first) Center of Excellence (COE) by the Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology, putting them in elite company with national organizations that provide the highest level of safe and effective anesthesia care for women and their babies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy
\nhttps:\/\/www.slhn.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured Image: Colette Harrar was the Network\u2019s 5,000th baby of Fiscal Year 2024, arriving on June 26, at 10:49 p.m., at St. Luke\u2019s Allentown Campus in its new Labor and … Continue reading St. Luke\u2019s Bucking the Declining-Birth Rate Trend<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/5000-birth.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/132303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}