POTTSVILLE, Pa. -- A birth and newborn medical facility is getting ready for new moms in Schuylkill County.
"This is phenomenal. This will be, in my estimation the best thing to happen to this community in a really long time. From a medical perspective and from caring for pregnant women and women in general, this is a state-of-the-art, brand-new unit with awesome facilities," said Dr. David Krewson.
Lehigh Valley Hospital Schuylkill is set to unveil this brand-new birth and newborn center. Previously, the old facility was housed on Jackson Street in Pottsville. This is the only practice in all of Schuylkill County that delivers babies.
"Those women would seriously have to travel to Reading or Allentown or Danville to deliver their babies," Dr. Krewson said.
This facility will be 15,000 square feet and is all part of a $7 million project that includes five delivery and nine after-delivery care rooms.
"Family is important. From that first moment of delivery, that bonding between mom and baby is extremely important, so we encourage that. We made rooms that are large enough to let mom, baby, and their loved ones, dad, and any extended relatives that want to be with them, to create that bonding and nurturing environment right from the start," said Susan Curry, vice president of patient care services.
Space is a big emphasis in this new facility. The size of the delivery, post-partum, and operation rooms are about twice the size as the rooms at the old facility.
"It's not just mom having the baby, it's the whole family having the baby, so it's important to have space for everyone to bond with the baby," said Renee Magdeburg, director of maternal child health.
This new facility in the 700 block of Norwegian Street is slated to open within the next few weeks.