Why Mercy Gilbert Hospital Rocks!

I'll be posting more on local hospitals later, but for now, I just wanted to share the letter that I emailed to Mercy Gilbert after touring their birth center this past week.

*****

Dear Mercy Gilbert Staff,

This past week my husband and I toured the Lund Birth Center at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, and we were extremely impressed with the high quality of your facilities, staff, and services that you offer at the birth center.

 Here are some of the things we love about the maternity care you offer at Mercy Gilbert:

- Welcoming labor doulas, siblings, and birth plans (rather than discouraging all of the above, as many hospitals do)

- Making water labor widely available (and encouraged!)

- Welcoming midwives to your labor staff

- Encouraging mother who want VBAC births and/or unmedicated births, as well as maintaining a low rate of cesarean births

- Your commitment to couplet care and breastfeeding, as well as to non-interference in bonding and rooming-in

- Making labor tools such as birth balls and peanut balls both available and encouraged

- Respecting the rights of parents to make individualized choices for their labor, birth, and newborn health care

- Your lovely (and quiet!) facilities – both within the birth center and throughout the hospital

We have toured several other valley hospitals, and none of them could even come close to the quality of care offered by Mercy Gilbert. We very much thank you for the hard work you have put into creating such a wonderful environment for babies and families. Congratulations also on your upcoming designation as a Baby-Friendly Hospital!

 Sincerely Yours,
Diana J.