Labor & Delivery Overview
The birth of a child is one of the most significant events in the life of a woman and her family. Sweetwater Hospital Association and their employees strive to provide a comfortable and memorable child birth experience.
Labor & Delivery Education
There can be many signs of Preterm Labor and Labor. As a new Mom, this can be scary and confusing. Scan the QR code to the left to watch videos on how you can identify preterm labor and what to expect during a full term labor and delivery experience.
After giving birth it is always helpful to have some references to care for your newborn such as feeding and promoting infant development. It is also important to know about postpartum care and what to expect once you deliver. Scan the QR code to the left for more information on how to make this process easier for new Moms.
Labor & Delivery Services
Labor and Delivery, Postpartum, and the Nursery are located on the 3rd floor of the hospital. The unit offers state of the art central monitoring, decentralized supply, and workstations in close proximity to patients to provide care from highly qualified staff.
During the labor process, you will be placed on a monitor to evaluate the fetal heart rate, contractions, and your vital signs. Birthing balls and Peanut balls are available for your use. We offer pull out sofas, extra blankets, and pillows for your support person. Wi-Fi access is also available for all your devices. Laboring rooms contain fetal heart monitors and all the necessary delivery equipment.
Our team of employees are skilled with the knowledge needed to care for both mother and infant in any situation during this process. All new employees are enrolled in fetal heart monitoring classes to better understand and interpret fetal strips.
All employees are ACLS (advanced cardiac life support), PALS (pediatric advanced life support), NRP (neonatal resuscitation program), AND STABLE (resuscitation, stabilization and transfer of sick and/or preterm infant) certified in the event a normal delivery turns into a complicated emergency.
Surgical suites are located adjacent to our unit with 24-hour availability to obstetrics medications and anesthesia if desired.
All staff members are trained to assist with educating new mothers. Education includes postpartum care (baby blues, postpartum depression, and signs and symptoms of problems after birth) and newborn care (breastfeeding, formula feeding, safe sleep, jaundice and bathing of newborn).
Our nursery consists of the necessary emergency equipment needed to stabilize and transfer preterm newborns to a higher level facility if necessary. We have warmers equipped to provide c-pap and/or oxi-hood and a Nihon Kohden neonate cardiac monitor.
We encourage rooming in of your healthy newborn infant, however, we will bring your infant to our nursery upon mother’s request depending on staffing availability.
Scheduled cesarean sections or elective inductions may need to be rescheduled or postponed due to the increase in laboring patients. In the event this happens, someone from the Labor and Delivery department will call you the night before or the morning of the procedure. All efforts will be made to accommodate you and reschedule as soon as possible.
Where Do I Go?
During Normal Office Hours:
Call your physician and they will direct you.
After 5pm or weekends:
Register through the Emergency Room and the Emergency Department staff will contact the labor and delivery staff to come and evaluate you.
During the evaluation period, either you will be sent home for follow-up care with your regular doctor or you will be admitted for continued care by the on-call physician or regular doctor.
Scheduled C-Section, Non-Stress Test, and Inductions:
You will register in the Emergency Room then walk/be escorted to the Labor and Delivery department on the third floor of the hospital where you will be placed in a private room for admission for scheduled procedure.
When you arrive after 5pm, you pick up the phone at the entrance to the labor and deliver unit and a nurse will direct you to a private room for triage and evaluation of your complaints.
Visitation:
The visitation policy, at this time, consists of one support person per laboring patient.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Sign Up Today!
A premier, book-gifting program that mails free books to registered children every month from
birth through age 5
● The Foundation covers overhead costs and negotiates wholesale pricing for the books, while
local community partners fundraise to cover the cost of mailing and decided-upon wholesale
book prices (about $2.10 per child)
● Operates in 5 countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of
Ireland
● Enrolled children from birth receive 60 books by the time they graduate from the Imagination
Library
● Book selections include braille and bilingual book options
● Over 2 million free books are gifted each month to children around the world and 1 in 10
children in the USA under the age of five are enrolled in the program.
● Every 1.3 seconds, a book is mailed
● Over 190 million free books have been gifted since the program’s inception in 1995
● There are currently 15 Statewide Programs (legislation signed) in the United States: TN, NC, OH,
WV, AR, DE, CO, KS, KY, WA, OK, D.C., and three launching in 2023: ME, MO, and CA
● 1 in 10 children under the age of five in the United States receives a book in the mail each month
from The Dollywood Foundation!
● Website: www.imaginationlibrary.com
