Two Baby Booms In A Texas Hospital, With 107 Births In Just 91 Hours

The nurses and doctors of this Texas hospital were on their feet a lot more than usual by the end of June. The reason? A baby boom, which resulted in the hospital staff witnessing the birth of a whooping one hundred and seven infants in the span of just ninety-one hours.

Andrews Women’s Hospital at Baylor Scott And White All Saints Medical Center, Fort Worth, first saw fifty-two newborn babies in the span of forty-seven hours on the twenty-fourth of June. Before they could even get a breather, the hospital delivered another fifty-five babies in less than forty-four hours on the twenty-eighth of June.

Sounds crazy? That’s precisely what Michelle Stemley, the Director of Nursing at the hospital, had to say. She said that they all experienced quite a huge baby boom, and in addition to being crazy, it was tense and stressful but super fun as well!

A large volume of childbirth is not something new for Andrews Women’s Hospital. A baby boom is essentially a marked increase in the number of births on a given day. The medical center specializes in gynecology and women’s health, so on average, they manage around sixteen deliveries daily. To keep up with this, they have a neonatal intensive care unit with a capacity of sixty-three beds, making it the largest in Texas.

But nothing really prepares you for a double baby boom, so even though the hospital does deal with a large volume of births, they were still shocked when they had to deal with a double baby boom, all in a matter of ninety-one hours.

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All Hands On The Deck

So how did they manage it? The regular delivery rooms were packed (obviously), so some mothers had to give birth in the operating theatres. The staff worked tirelessly, juggling between each delivery, taking care of everyone as much as possible, and making room for mothers who kept coming their way. Although they were constantly on their feet, rushing their way from one to another, they never rushed the mothers. Labor and delivery is no easy task, and this hospital knew that well. So they took it upon themselves to ensure that every mother was as comfortable as they possibly could be at this time. The only stress the mothers had to deal with was that of childbirth. The rest of the burden was on the shoulders of the hospital staff.

What’s Causing This?

Image: Facebook: DGBGlass

Now, let’s look into what could have caused all this baby madness. One of Stemley’s theories is that the pandemic is to blame. People were confined to their houses, so with nothing better to do, they probably thought having a baby was a great way to while away their time. The lockdown in Texas began in March last year, so the numbers didn’t add up initially. The hospital expected this baby boom somewhere around January, but things didn’t entirely turn out that way. Instead, it happened in June. Stemley went on to say that this was probably because people took some time after the lockdown to get comfortable with the new normal before deciding to have a baby.

Will things get back to the normal sixteen-a-day-average births? The hospital thinks not. Stemley went on to say that the volumes are still at a high. He said that they’re not expecting it to come down anytime soon and that it’s going to be this way for a couple of months to come!

Kudos to the hospital staff! Managing such a high number, particularly during a pandemic, is no easy feat, so we can all agree that they’re doing a brilliant job!

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