After Childbirth
After your baby is born, you will be transferred to Mother/Baby to rest, recover and bond with your newborn. We know that moms and babies are happiest when they are together that’s why place a high importance on things that moms and babies love, like skin-to-skin, lots of time to bond and limited interruptions. Our secure, comfortable Mother/Baby unit allows you to bond with your baby while being helped and cared for by the Mother/Baby nursing staff. We also offer lactation consultants that can help answer your breast or bottle feeding questions.
During your hospital stay, your baby will receive a newborn hearing test, and we will give you the needed forms so you can order your baby’s birth certificate and social security card. You will receive a souvenir hospital birth record from us to commemorate the birth.
Winchester Medical Center welcomes thousands of babies into the world each year, but you won’t find these babies in rows of cribs in a nursery. That’s because WMC follows an evidence-based practice called Rooming-In, in which babies room with their mothers during their hospital stay—from the moment of birth and until they go home.
Preregister for Birth
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Visiting Hours
Please visit this page for the most up to date information on visitation. To speak with someone on our staff about questions you may have, please call Latoya Hall at 540-536-3475.
The Power Hour and Beyond: Skin-to-Skin
- Stabilizing heart and breathing rates
- Increasing oxygen levels
- Providing warmth to the baby
- Pain relief
- Lowers stress in mom and baby
- Better milk production
Being together in the first hour of life, when possible, is the best thing for both baby and mom. When babies are held skin-to-skin, important bonding hormones are released. Infant senses are activated by being held close to mom in the first hour and their sense of smell, taste, sight and hearing all come to life, just by being held skin-to-skin.
Skin to skin is crucial in helping babies transition to life outside the womb and is great for all infants and moms, not just for breastfeeding babies.
Rooming-in
Because of the crucial link between mother and baby, we offer Rooming-In to all moms and babies so that families do not have to be separated in the first few days after birth. Rooming with your baby has many benefits:
- Increased milk production
- Babies who are fed often, are more content and cry less
- Research tells us that mothers who share rooms with their babies actually get better rest when their baby is close by
It’s impossible to spoil a newborn baby by holding them often! Our staff is here to help you gain confidence as a new parent and will be happy to help and answer questions during your stay.
