Healthy Living Feature
Birth by Design
Neugarten Family Birth Center
Staff at the front desk at of the Neugarten Family Birth Center in Rhinebeck: (behind desk)
Anna Goyette, RNC and Marsha Shapiro, RN; (in front of desk) Fiona Cottrell, OB Tech,
and Maureen Teranova, MD; (rear) Amy Mincher, RN, Kim Santerre, RNC, and Dona Osterhoudt, RN.
Women who are giving birth are accustomed to losing control when they check in to the hospital. These patients are forced to stop all food and drink, and by and large, confined to a bed. Once labor has begun, they can find themselves being shuttled from sterile room to sterile room, nurse to nurse, and procedure to procedure in order to conform to the hospital’s rigid set of guidelines for labor.
At Neugarten Family Birth Center, the staff believes giving birth should be different. They have been delivering mothers from this terrifying, alienating experience for over 20 years, offering patients all the advantages of being next door to Northern Dutchess Hospital, and all the comforts of home. Actually, patients say, when you take into account the lobster dinner, the massage, and the around-the-clock care you receive there, the center might be better than home.
“It’s like a hotel in some ways,” says Kate Kortbus. She had both her children at the center, and jokes that the experience was so pleasant, she can’t wait to get back: “It almost makes you want to have another child quickly.”
Opened in 1985, Neugarten was the first hospital-based birthing center in New York State. Over the last 23 years birth-giving procedures have changed a lot, but the center has stayed true to its mission of offering safe, comfortable, family-centered care.
The center staff includes skilled physicians, midwives, and a full nursing staff. Neugarten is also attended by mid-level practitioners from Health Quest’s neonatology unit, who assist physicians with high-risk deliveries, and who perform newborn exams and consultations.
Each year about 770 babies are born at the center. About 29 percent of these babies are delivered via Caesarian section, which is consistent with the national average, according to Gina D’Angelo-Mullen, director of public relations for Northern Dutchess Hospital. About 75 percent of the birth center patients choose to use some type of pain medicine during their stay. Hospital stays vary from two days for vaginal deliveries to three days for C-section. HealthGrades, an independent health care assessment, awarded the center five stars, and ranked it among the top 10 percent of the country’s hospitals.
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