We Are Only Born Once | ArticleSimple.net

We Are Only Born Once | ArticleSimple.net

It was in the early 1900′s that hospitals began marketing to expectant mothers to “come and lie in”. New mothers would stay for up to a month, enjoying all the benefits of 24 hour nurses, candle light, live musicians and single room delivery experiences. Campaigns encouraging women to embrace an elite birth experience soon gave rise to declining mortality rates and a growing demand for this trendy birth experience. Naturally, this created a supply and demand problem. Increase volume, demand for beds from WWI soldiers, rising popularity of the assembly line and later HMO’s have decreased the length of stay forced the “birth” segment of the hospital, down to a drastically decreased length of stay. Just 80 years later the length of stay was reduced down to under 48 hours.
As a result, many of the service elements that drew mothers from their homes, have also been cut and replaced with sterile conditions. This has generated a consumer backlash and a rising trend in birth center and home birth events. According to the CDC home birth was on the rise by 29% in 2009 and has grown since. Women who have low risk pregnancy’s, with additional children are choosing this experience for the naturalness of it, and the decrease in costs. Competition for market share is driving up hospital cost of birth. Hospitals such as Holy Redeemer in Philadelphia are forced to add $10 million dollar remodels when the average reimbursement rate for medicaid is only 82 cents on the dollar. They recoup only an average of two thirds of the medical expenses and carry larger overhead.
While the low numbers, though rising, of home births are not a direct threat to the hospital, they are influencing how expectant mothers, expect their birth to be. Companies like Bavia Birth are bringing a ‘home birth’ environment with candle light, essential oils, music and massage to the birth mother, while she is in the hospital. Says Dr Elbert Nelson at The Christ Hospital in Ohio, “Bringing Bavia to our hospital is another way for us to provide exceptional care and offer amenities that will speed recovery and make patients’ stays more soothing, comfortable and home-like.” Patients pay for the services directly, just like they would for a doula, or the services can be “gifted” instead of flowers or balloons. This is showing to improve the patient experience, at no cost to the hospital and increase the patients perception of their stay in higher HCAHPS measures.