Obstetrics Care at Willow Creek

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Willow Creek Women's Hospital offers sophisticated capabilities to care for the most fragile babies. Moms and families who live in our region receive local access to modern services, programs and technology. Our 64-bed facility features 24 NICU beds and is located in Johnson right off exit 69 of I-49.

Willow Creek Women's Hospital is designated as a Baby-Friendly hospital, an international designation from the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund. The initiative encourages and recognizes hospitals and birthing centers that offer a high level of care for breastfeeding mothers and their babies.

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As a Baby-Friendly hospital, we support breastfeeding mothers. Nurses and lactation consultants guide you through the Golden Hour after birth to assist with the first feeding, and answer any questions you may have during this time of bonding.

Willow Creek Women's Hospital has also earned the National Safe Sleep Hospital Certification Program Accreditation as a Silver Safe Sleep Leader. The National Safe Sleep Hospital Certification Program recognizes hospitals that demonstrate a commitment to leadership for best practices and education on infant sleep safety.

Willow Creek is the only dedicated women's hospital in northwest Arkansas, offering a 24-bed Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Onsite clinical teams include board-certified neonatologists, certified neonatal nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists with specialized training in the care of fragile newborns, physical, occupational and speech therapists, pastoral services and social workers. The hospital also offers an ambulance solely dedicated to neonatal transports.

We also provide family-centered care in which mother and baby stay together from childbirth to discharge - an evidence-based best practice in maternity care that facilitates family bonding, supports successful breastfeeding and increases patient satisfaction. Willow Creek also offers two new low-intervention birthing suites. With minimal intervention and technology, the low-intervention birth program allows hospital staff to support patients and families in their labor and birthing goals. The suites offer a large bed, specialized labor tub, shower, birthing stool, labor balls and waterproof, wireless monitoring. Learn more here.

Babies that do not require significant respiratory support and do not have events such as bradycardia or apnea are sent to a private room where Mom and Dad are encouraged to stay with baby. Many babies require more intensive care and are admitted to open bay rooms where they receive the support they need and parents can stay bed-side as much and as long as they like.

Willow Creek's NICU also offers mothers specialized and individualized care from a board-certified lactation consultant. Although not exclusive to Willow Creek, lactation consultants at our facility make daily rounds and assist with breast pumps and breastfeeding to assure each baby is getting the benefit of their mother's milk to optimize their baby's health. The lactation consultants are also available to answer questions and concerns from mothers and families in regards to feeding their baby in the NICU.

At Willow Creek we offer an optional postpartum bracelet program which can help emergency medical professionals recognize that a person has given birth within the past year even if they are unable to communicate. This information allows the ER team to consider postpartum complications when making a diagnosis. Learn more.

In addition to being voted Best Place to Have a Baby by readers of two Arkansas publications for three years straight, the following are some of the unique clinical capabilities that distinguish Willow Creek Women's Hospital from other facilities in northwest Arkansas:

• The professionals at Willow Creek's NICU are able to serve mother and baby as early as 23 weeks gestation all the way to term (40 weeks).
• The neonatal ICU transport team picks up fragile and premature babies born at hospitals that do not have a NICU. Neonatal nurse practitioners (APNs) also attend high risk deliveries of mothers with babies expected to need NICU care but were unable to be transported to Willow Creek Women's hospital prior to delivery at these outlying hospitals. The transport team includes a NICU-trained registered nurse and respiratory therapist to bring baby to WCWH where the neonatal specialists can provide the care baby needs.
• High frequency ventilation (HFV) helps maintain lung recruitment by delivering small, tidal volumes at a constant rate to keep tiny lungs open and to better prevent lung injury. This technology is needed because some preterm babies do not do well on conventional ventilation and others must be on the ventilator for extended periods of time which may cause injury to the lungs.
• Inhaled nitric oxide (iNo) therapy is used to treat hypoxic respiratory failure in infants that is associated with pulmonary hypertension or high arterial lung pressure. This therapy reduces the need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) which increases the risk of bleeding. iNo therapy uses nitric oxide which improves oxygenation for babies greater than 34 weeks gestation.
• Whole body cooling (therapeutic hypothermia) is induced hypothermia for babies after birth. Body cooling provides cerebral (brain) protection for newborns affected by hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). This complication occurs when there is a reduced level of oxygen (hypoxia) or blood flow (ischemia) to the baby's brain or body. Body cooling significantly decreases the risk of neurological damage after a traumatic birth.
• Amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) tests detect seizure activity and baseline brain function on admission and is an invaluable tool to monitor brain function 24 hours a day in high risk newborns with brain injury or malformation. It can tell doctors if there is abnormal electrical activity in the brain, and in some cases, the types of seizures that are happening. This information can then be used for making the right diagnosis.
• NICU graduate care clinic is a two year program and the only follow-up program of its kind in NWA. Neonatologists, pediatricians, social services, speech therapists, nutritionists and occupational therapists follow baby for two years after they "graduate" from the NICU to ensure appropriate growth, weaning off home oxygen, resolution of breathing pauses (apnea), consistent swallowing and feeding and developmental milestones are being met.
• Ophthalmologists examine baby's eyes and diagnose any problems baby may have. Babies born prematurely and/or who required mechanical ventilation and high oxygen levels often have special needs for the eyes and eye specialists at Willow Creek Women's Hospital make sure these needs are met.
• Respiratory, speech, occupational and physical therapists dedicated to the NICU work with babies and their families at the hospital as well as in baby's home.
• Dedicated NICU dietician who monitor's baby's nutrition, caloric in-take and growth. Extremely preterm babies are given an exclusive human milk based diet from birth until 35 weeks by provision of donor milk and a human, milk-based human-milk fortifier to prevent growth failure and bowel injury.

To schedule a tour or to register for education classes, please call (479) 684-3204.

For more information, please call (800) 734-2024.