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The Cherese Mari Laulhere BirthCare Center at MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach is proud to announce that private rooms are now available throughout the entire birthing journey. From the time a woman steps into the hospital in labor, until she leaves to go home with her newborn, she’ll be provided private room accommodations. This further enhances Miller Children’s & Women’s top clinical and quality care, by supporting our birthing families with new comfort amenities.

“Historically, our high volumes didn’t allow us the opportunity to offer private rooms. We always tried, but couldn’t accommodate everyone during our busy season,” says Shari Kelly, MSN/MSHA, RN, NE-BC, C-ONQS, RNC-OB, executive director, BirthCare Center and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Miller Children’s & Women’s. “Ironically, COVID-19 made us rethink work-flows. We knew this was a huge patient dissatisfier, so we implemented processes to make this work, along with a few upgrades. I’m happy that now we can say we provide the leading quality and comfort care in the area.”

Miller Children’s & Women’s offers a level IV maternity center and level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) under one roof, and has earned several designations and honors, including a Blue Distinction Center for Maternity by Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield and a Center of Excellence from the Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology.

Leading clinical care is now supplemented with the comfort of all private rooms. The private rooms within the Mother-Baby (postpartum) Unit are spacious with large windows that offer great amounts of natural light. There is even a convertible chair for the new mom’s partner to stay the night.

“Before, in the instance when there was a shared room, there wasn’t room for the partner to stay,” says Kelly. “Now, partners can stay for those essential bonding moments.”

Miller Children’s & Women’s is the only hospital in Los Angeles and Orange Counties where expectant moms and their babies receive advanced care by in-house pediatric and maternity sub-specialists under one roof, including maternal-fetal medicine specialists, neonatologists and OB hospitalists. If a delivery isn’t routine, the baby is moved just down the hall to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to receive specialized care.