Working Together for Special Deliveries
As Sacramento’s busiest baby hospital, Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento delivers more than 5,000 babies each year at its Sutter Memorial Hospital campus. While each birth is unique and most require little intervention, we also care for many families who need special assistance during pregnancy, birth and beyond. Currently, Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento serves more than 23 counties as one of California’s leading high-risk obstetrics and neonatal referral centers.
Gustavo Sosa, M.D., Neonatologist
“At Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, we have access to advanced technology that helps us diagnose many conditions during pregnancy that might cause complications to the baby and mother at birth,” said Dr. William Gilbert, regional medical director of Sutter Health’s women’s services. “We have found that by providing parents education and support prior to delivery, we can reduce much of the stress associated with complicated deliveries. This year we launched a free program to help address the special needs of these families.”
The Special Start Program offers pregnant women and their partners support when their baby is diagnosed with a special-needs medical condition during pregnancy. Through the program, parents receive support and education about the baby’s health condition and are connected to an interdisciplinary team of health professionals who are available during pregnancy, at delivery and to care for the baby after birth. Parents also receive access to support groups with other parents sharing similar experiences.
“Many of the babies born with special needs spend time in the neonatal intensive care unit and require care from our neonatal intensivists and pediatric surgeons,” said Andrew Wertz, M.D., medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento. “Within our NICU and integrated children’s ‘hospital within a hospital’ we currently care for more than 1,000 premature and critically ill newborns from 23 counties each
year. We’re excited about SMCS’s new 61-bed neonatal intensive care unit and heliport, which will shorten transport times and allow us to care for more babies in need.”
In addition to the Special Start Program, Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento is working on several other initiatives to help ensure healthy beginnings. This year, Sutter Memorial Hospital became one of three Sutter Health hospitals to pilot a national March of Dimes initiative to eliminate elective premature births. Sutter Children’s Center, Sacramento also launched a more aggressive program to diagnose, monitor and treat gestational diabetes and is currently working toward Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) accreditation, a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund.
