When it comes to having a baby, selecting a provider and delivery location is an important choice for families. UF Health Women’s Specialists – North provides excellent care for expectant mothers from the start of pregnancy to delivery. The beautiful facility, located in the UF Health North hospital, has private, spacious suites on the labor and delivery floor designed to maximize comfort. A team of providers — who are more like a family — offer expert care and knowledge during the birth experience.

LaRae C. Brown, MD, is the medical director at UF Health Women’s Specialist – North and specializes in obstetrics and gynecology. According to Brown, the process for expectant mothers begins at the UF Health Women’s Specialists Fetal Diagnostic Center – North.

Since UF Health North is equipped to accommodate low-risk pregnancies, patients are initially screened to ensure there are no high-risk factors associated with the pregnancy. Patients are then connected with the nursing team to schedule their first ultrasound at the center. During this appointment, an ultrasonographer ensures the baby is healthy and growing with a strong heartbeat and determines a due date.

The center also supports women later in pregnancy with fetal testing. Often performed in the third trimester, the fetal testing includes an ultrasound, known as a biophysical profile, and a non-stress test that monitors patient heart rate and contraction pattern — both of which are used to determine fetal well-being. Depending on the patient, these tests may be performed weekly or twice weekly.

The majority of patients who need fetal testing have hypertensive diseases of pregnancy, including chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension and gestational diabetes, and patients carrying past their due date. Although these comorbidities appear to be high-risk, Brown says they actually fall under the low-risk category for UF Health North.

“Well-controlled high blood pressure, hypertension or other diseases of pregnancy are all manageable, and most of those babies are born healthy at full term,” Brown said.

When a patient is determined to be high-risk, she will be referred to a high-risk care facility, such as UF Health Jacksonville. High-risk pregnancies may include, but are not limited to, the following issues:

• The baby has an anomaly, such as a heart defect or another structural problem that might require pediatric surgery after delivery.
• The patient is at risk for a preterm delivery (35 weeks or less) and needs a NICU.
• Patients diagnosed with HIV or other serious diseases, pregestational diabetes or epilepsy.
• The patient has a history of a kidney, liver or other type of transplant.
• The patient has a BMI of 45 or higher before pregnancy.

Staff want to make expectant mothers feel as comfortable as possible during labor and delivery. Patients are checked in to a labor and delivery, postpartum recovery suite, where they remain throughout labor, delivery and recovery.

Patients also have access to holistic pain management, such as hydrotherapy tubs, and epidurals are available if requested. Wireless monitoring allows patients the freedom to move around during labor or sit on the birthing ball or in the hydrotherapy tub.

“One of the great things about UF Health North being a low-risk facility is that it allows us to focus on the patient experience,” Brown said.

The nurses and midwives support and encourage natural, spontaneous birth if that’s what the patient prefers, but are fully trained and prepared in the event that intervention is needed. Their philosophy is to support the patient in any way she wishes to be supported.

“Our services offer a holistic approach to care with the safeguard of having a board-certified OB-GYN on-site,” Brown said.

Visit North.UFHealthJax.org/babies to learn more about UF Health Women’s Specialists – North and the Labor and Delivery Unit at UF Health North.