CHESAPEAKE, Va. — In a couple of weeks, Chesapeake Regional Healthcare will be opening its new postpartum mother and baby unit.
The newly redesigned unit exists to make families feel at ease in the hospital before they go home with their new baby.
From mini-fridges to more bathroom space, the new postpartum mother and baby unit has been upgraded to include a touch of home away from home.
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"I feel like I'm staying in a hotel," said Melissa Shaughness, an expecting mother and patient. "I feel like it's a vacation, sort of."
Shaughness is having her second baby due in August. She says one major change she's seen since returning to this hospital is more room to move around.
"The rooms are much bigger, and it just seems like home," adds Shaughness.
Carri Folwaczny is the nurse manager of the mother-baby unit. She says the goal for the upgrade was to make sure families stayed together.
"Our old rooms didn't give us that ability to comfortably keep baby at the bedside at all times," said Folwaczny.
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During the renovation the rooms were expanded. Instead of 32 beds, there are now 36.
Some of the new amenities include larger bathrooms, a basin for bath time and new sleeper sofas that convert into chairs and a table.
Some of the other features include a new neonatal intensive care unit for newborns, education rooms, and five larger handicap rooms, two of which will serve as reverse isolation rooms.
"These rooms will give us the ability to take care of our flu patients, RSV patients and COVID patients and not take away from their care as well as risk exposure to other patients," explained Folwaczny.
The unit is expected to open mid-march.
