Doctors at Mountain West Medical Center delivered a record 52 babies last month, and is on track to break the new-set record again this month.
The hospital surpassed its previous record by four births last month, and the trend doesn’t show any signs of slowing, said Jen Raiford, Women’s Services director for Mountain West Medical Center.
In addition to the 52 births, the hospital assisted another 98 outpatients with various pregnancy-related concerns, and the hospital’s pre-natal classes continue to grow in popularity.
Raiford attributed the increase to the effort the hospital has put into growing its birth center. More Tooele-area mothers have chosen to give birth in Tooele, rather than opt to drive to Salt Lake because Mountain West has expanded the birth options it offers to patients, she said.
In the past, the hospital expected all mothers to request an epidural and made the epidural part of its delivery routine. Today, the hospital has successfully administered to a number of natural births, and has expanded to make options such as birthing tubs and wireless monitors—which allow women to move around while in labor—available locally.
Various ad campaigns, as well as word-of-mouth advertising by patients who say their Tooele experience was on par or better than birthing experiences at larger medical facilities in Salt Lake, have also helped increase the hospital’s popularity among mothers, Raiford said.
The growth has spurred more expansion at the hospital. Raiford said she has hired eight additional staff members over the last several months, and she is considering adding a “sibling class” for children whose mothers are expecting an addition to the family to the pre-natal class offerings.
Raiford said the hospital’s facilities—eight labor and delivery rooms and five postpartum rooms, plus rooms for triage and c-sections—could accommodate monthly births nearly twice the current rate. They might need it: Mountain West delivered six babies Monday morning alone.