OB/Gyn Services

Healthy Beginnings Plus

Healthy and Happy from the Start
Good health for babies - and their moms - starts long before birth. Take care of your child and yourself by enrolling today in the Healthy Beginnings Plus program at Sacred Heart Hospital. Complete prenatal care and related health services support you through your pregnancy and afterward - and it's all available to many lower-income women and families

What's Good for Both of You
Healthy Beginnings Plus gives women who qualify the full range of prenatal and postpartum care.

• Skilled obstetrical/gynecological care
• Access to specialists
• Parenting classes
• Other health-related services
• Social services
• Smoking cessation counseling
• Childbirth education
• Nutritional counseling
• Access to follow-up home visits

Studies prove it - qualified prenatal care improves your chances of a normal pregnancy and a delivery without complications. It also helps ensure the health and well-being of your newborn.

Great Care is Right Around the Corner
Making the most of Healthy Beginnings Plus is easy and convenient - you'll see us at Sacred Heart Hospital's OB/GYN Services, in the hospital at 421 Chew Street Allentown. Sacred Heart's doctors, nurses, and nurse-midwives will provide quality, compassionate care throughout your pregnancy.

Are you Eligible?
Pregnant women with family incomes up to 185% of the federal poverty guidelines may benefit from Healthy Beginnings Plus. (Your unborn child counts in the family-size calculations.)

It's easy to find out if you qualify - just call us at 610-776-4758. Sacred Heart's staff can help you fill out a medical assistance application right away.

Sacred Heart Midwives Program

What is a Nurse-Midwife?
Certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) are professionals educated in the disciplines of nursing and midwifery. Midwifery is the independent healthcare of essentially normal women. CNMs believe that every woman has the right to safe, nurturing, satisfying healthcare. They promote holistic healthcare for mothers and babies throughout the life cycle. The midwives are certified by the American College of Nurse-Midwives and are licensed by the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine to deliver comprehensive midwifery care including prenatal, birth, and postpartum care, gynecologic examinations, and family planning services.

Why go to a Nurse-Midwife?
In Europe, 75% of all babies are delivered by midwives. Nurse-midwives provide professional health-care services that emphasize high-quality personalized care to meet the specific needs of each individual. Experience shows that fewer than 8% of women delivering with the assistance of a midwife require a Cesarean birth, and less than 1% need an episiotomy.

Personalized Care for Women

• Gynecology Care
  The midwives provide well-woman gynecological care from adolescent to post-menopausal women.
• Maternity Care
  Personalized pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum care. Options include in-hospital birth suites, out-of-hospital early labor facilities, massage, water births, and epidural anesthesia
• Specialist Services
  Board-certified obstetricians/gynecologists, available for consultation for high-risk pregnancy and gynecological problems.
• Individual Care
  Your midwives provide one-on-one visits and include you in all decision making about your care.
• Time for Visits
  Your midwives dedicate time for teaching, discussing care decisions, and answering any questions
• Care Throughout Life
  Health care for all women, pregnant or not pregnant, from adolescence to post-menopause

Maternity Services

• Comprehensive prenatal care
• Childbirth/childcare classes
• Labor support and birth care
• Postpartum care (including home visit)
• Breastfeeding consultation

Well-Woman Services

• Pap smear screening
• Breast examinations
• Preconception counseling
• Menopause and post-menopause (including hormone replacement)
• Management of gynecologic concerns or problems
• Natural family planning

Water Birth
How does water or hydrotherapy bring pain relief?

• Buoyancy - The body feels almost weightless; the lack of gravitational pull is exhibited by floating. This makes it easier for a woman to support her body, decreasing muscle tension
• Hydrostatic pressure - Equal pressure is exerted on all parts of the body below the water. A conventional labor bed applies constant pressure, but a woman laboring in warm water receives equal pressure and support on all the submerged surfaces of her body. It is not uncommon for the laboring woman to dose off between contractions because she is so relaxed in the water.
• Specific heat - It is thought that heat and pain travel along the same nerve routes. With the application of water to the body surface, the nerves conduct the heat sensation, limiting the pain sensation.

In addition to the physical effects described, hydrotherapy has valuable psychological effects, promoting a sense of emotional comfort and well-being