At Boulder Community Health, we’re committed to making sure that
the birth of your child is everything you hope it will be. With an experienced
team always at your side, our Family Birth Center at Foothills Hospital
offers a full range of services to ensure you get the care, comfort and
keepsake moments you’ve dreamed about — not to mention private,
family-friendly suites with gorgeous mountain views.
A Choice of Providers for a Personalized Birth Experience
We recognize your expectations are unique and that the delivery team at
your side must be the right fit for you. That’s why we offer two
types of health care providers to deliver your baby in the safety of our
family-centered hospital:
Obstetrician physician: Our expert obstetricians-gynecologists, or OB-GYNs, at
Boulder Women's Care offer a more traditional path to delivering your baby. Some moms-to-be
already know they want an epidural to manage their labor and delivery
pain, while others hope to go through childbirth with as few medical interventions
as possible but want them immediately available if needed, making an obstetric
path the right fit. Also, women who have a high-risk pregnancy have the
benefit of being cared for by specially trained physicians.
Midwife: Our
Foothills Community Midwives’ care is based on the midwifery philosophy that labor and delivery is a
natural event, relying on techniques other than medications for low-risk
deliveries. Their care is best suited for moms-to-be who want a more natural,
holistic labor and delivery experience. The midwifery model of care is
also of shared decision-making, with a midwife educating and supporting
you both emotionally and physically.
Our obstetricians and nurse-midwives will guide through your options for
childbirth — such as options for pain relief, delivery methods,
infant feeding, and newborn care — and help you create a birth plan
that supports your wishes for that special day. (Download our guide for
creating a
birth plan.)
Private, Spacious Suites Surrounded by Gorgeous Views
Surrounded by Boulder’s breathtaking Flatirons Mountains, our Family
Birth Center is a one-of-kind facility providing your ideal birth experience.
Modern Labor-Delivery Suites: You’ll stay in one of our eight private suites for your labor and
baby’s birth, including the initial hours of recovery. Each suite
has a spa tub and fold-down couch for your key support person to stay
overnight, as well as birth balls and squat bars to ease contractions.
Family-Friendly Mom-Baby Suites: After welcoming your newborn, you’ll be transferred to one of our
spacious, home-like, family-friendly mom-baby suites, designed to let
you and your baby room-in together during your stay. With your baby nearby,
you’ll receive support from experienced nursing staff to assist
you with recovering from childbirth, breastfeeding (if desired), understanding
basic newborn care and transitioning to home. Each suite has its own temperature
control and mini-refrigerator, and most have queen-size beds for family bonding.
Whether you wish to manage your pain naturally or use medications during
labor, our experienced labor-and-delivery team will be there to offer
you caring support and guidance.
Natural Pain-Relief Options: We offer many stress- and pain-relieving holistic therapies, including
aromatherapy and self-pay acupuncture treatments. In addition, each of
our delivery suites has a spa tub, birth balls and squat bars to ease
your contractions.
Pain-Relief Medications: Our experienced labor and delivery nurses are here to support you with
nitrous oxide, an inhaled pain reliever that you can control. While using
nitrous, you can move around freely in labor. If you decide to have something
additional for pain, such as an epidural or intravenous pain medication,
an experienced anesthesiologist is available to meet your needs 24 hours a day.
Operated in collaboration with
Children’s Hospital Colorado, our Family Birth Center is home to a
Special Care Nursery (NICU) for families with premature babies or who have infants with extra medical
needs. Every family stays together in a private suite. One room for newborns
and an adjoining room for family members — so parents can be near
their baby at all times.
Our Special Care Nursery includes:
Neonatal nurse practitioners and neonatal physicians from Children’s
Hospital Colorado.
24/7 access to neonatal specialists
Support of nurses and infant-feeding consultants who coach and collaborate
with parents on care taking
If you opt for natural childbirth, both our obstetricians and midwives
will support you without intervention if your labor is progressing normally.
That’s why our Family Birth Center consistently has low C-section
rates (15.4% in 2022) and high VBAC (vaginal birth after C-section) success
rates compared to averages among Colorado hospitals.
Baby-Friendly Designation
BCH is Baby-Friendly, a designation sponsored by the World Health Organization
and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and promoted by the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). Our Baby-Friendly
USA Certification means we’ve earned recognition for our efforts
in giving babies a healthy start in life. The rigorous designation requires
birth centers to have policies that enhance mother-baby bonding, offer
optimal care for infant feeding and ensure a baby’s nutritional
needs are adequately met, regardless of whether a mom chooses to breastfeed
or formula-feed.
Read What being Baby-Friendly means.
Support for mother-baby bonding: As soon as your full-term, healthy baby is born and umbilical cord clamped,
they will be placed skin-to-skin, belly-down, directly on your chest.
Snuggling skin-to-skin lets you and your baby get to know each other,
helps soothe your newborn and facilitates breastfeeding. We also support
moms and infants rooming together day and night (also called rooming-in)
to encourage maternal-infant bonding and promote early breastfeeding for
moms who wish to do so.
Breastfeeding Support: There are many benefits to breastfeeding. If you choose to breastfeed,
we have team of registered nurses with lactation certification available
to support you every day you’re in the hospital.
Click here for breastfeeding support and resources.
After you and baby have gone home, you can schedule an outpatient breastfeeding
support consultation with a board-certified lactation consultant (IBCLC)
by simply calling
(303) 415-7230. (We’re also available to answer questions about breastfeeding over
the telephone at
(303) 415-7230.)
Our Family Birth Center rents electric breast pumps and sells a variety
of breastfeeding supplies. Call
(303) 415-7230 for availability and rates.
Our team of pelvic floor physical therapists have specialized training
in pelvic floor rehabilitation and are now available to consult with new
moms while they’re still inpatients at our Family Birth Center.
They’ll cover such things as pelvic floor health, safe return to
exercise after delivery and body mechanics to avoid undue strain or pain,
especially in the stomach or back areas. They will also answer all your
questions and provide information about BCH
outpatient services for pelvic floor rehabilitation.
Delivering at the Family Birth Center – COVID-19 Update
When you are in labor:
Call your provider.
When you arrive at the hospital, park in a surface-level lot directly in
front of the hospital or next to the Anderson Medical Center. Parking
is also available in two parking garages.
Do not enter the hospital through the emergency department. Use the door
halfway between the main entrance and the emergency room entrance. If
arriving after hours (between 8 p.m. and 5:30 a.m.), then please use the
emergency room entrance.
Take the elevators by the gift shop to the 3rd floor. Take a right. The
Labor and Delivery Unit is on the left. (View map of Foothills Hospital).
Due to the high prevalence of multiple respiratory illnesses, the following
precautions are in place until further notice:
Visitors under the age of 12 are not permitted in all areas of the Family
Birth Center, including Labor & Delivery, Mom-Baby and the Special
Care Nursery.
To protect vulnerable patients, our Special Care Nursery is open to masked
visitors only and encourages no more than two people at a time.
Labor & Delivery encourages a limit of TWO birthing partners who can
care for and support a patient in labor. Birthing partners are encouraged
to stay with mother and baby throughout their stay.
Quiet hours are between the hours of 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. No visitors are
permitted in the Family Birth Center during those hours.
Join us for an in-person or virtual tour of our Family Birth Center at
Foothills Hospital. The tour is 45 minutes long and includes the Labor
& Delivery Unit and Post-Partum (Mother-Baby) Unit. Please click the
links below to sign up for a tour.
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