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 award-winning 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 (OB-GYNs) with
BCH’s Boulder Women's Care and
Boulder Medical Center in Boulder offer a more traditional path to delivering your baby. Some moms-to-be
are more comfortable going through labor and delivery with a highly trained
physician who has completed four years of medical school followed by a
four-year residency program, 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: Certified nurse-midwives with
BCH’s Foothills Community Midwives and
Boulder Medical Center in Boulder provide care based on the midwifery philosophy, which supports labor and
delivery as a natural event, relying on techniques other than medications
for low-to-moderate-risk pregnancies and births. 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.
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.
Birthing Friendly Designation
Our Family Birth Center is recognized as a “Birthing Friendly”
hospital by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). "Birthing-Friendly"
is a national designation recognizing high-quality maternity care. The
designation identifies hospitals and health systems that participate in
perinatal quality improvement collaborative programs and that implement
evidence-based care to improve maternal health.
Family Birth Center Visitation
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.
For visitors under the age of 12, view our current
visitation policy.
To protect vulnerable patients, our Special Care Nursery is open to no
more than two people at a time.
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 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.
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.
Our Family Birth Center is recognized as a “Birthing Friendly”
hospital by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). "Birthing-Friendly"
is a national designation recognizing high-quality maternity care. The
designation identifies hospitals and health systems that participate in
perinatal quality improvement collaborative programs and that implement
evidence-based care to improve maternal health.
obgyn.jpg)
.jpg)
