Center for Women and Children’s Health

We are proud to offer expectant parents prenatal educational opportunities and the highest quality medical care.

 

A Message from the Director

Hi, I’m Valerie Wright, the Director of Women’s and Children’s Services at North Alabama Medical Center. I know the delivery of your baby is one of your most precious moments in life! It’s our honor to bring that baby into the world, and my staff and I do everything possible to ensure a safe delivery and positive experience. Today, I want to take a couple minutes to explain our admission process when coming to deliver at North Alabama Medical Center, or be admitted for a pregnancy related problem before delivery.

Upon arrival, we will ask your spouse or significant other and any friends or family members to briefly wait in the waiting room until private health questions are asked. Asking these questions privately is essential for the care and safety of our patients. Upon our move to North Alabama Medical Center, we’ve been working through some process changes and know there’s been a delay for some of our patients. We apologize for those delays, but we always have the best interest of all our patients in mind, so over the past week, we have started asking these screening questions as soon as the patient is in the room – before the patient is actually admitted. We expect this to reduce the separation time to approximately 5 minutes.

Allowing someone to sign a waiver to bypass this process does not protect our most vulnerable patients.  However, we would never, nor have we ever, kept a spouse or significant other out of the room if the mother was about to deliver.

We realize that each person has individual needs and desires for their birth experience and we want to fulfill as many of those desires as possible while maintaining a safe environment for the mother and child.

Our visitor policy has evolved since our opening and we now allow three people in the room at one time while the mother is in labor. Limitations on visitors is for the safety and privacy of each of our patients. We understand that this is a time for celebration for family and friends and we want to honor that while ensuring that each mom and baby receive the best care possible.

There is only one reason that I do this job every day. I want North Alabama Medical Center to be the premier place to give birth not only in the Shoals or North Alabama, but in the state. I was a labor and delivery nurse for almost 10 years before I became the leader of the department and I can honestly say that I felt privileged to attend every one of the deliveries that I had the pleasure to be a part of. I would never allow a process that I felt was not in the best interest of the patient. Sometimes developing systems for a labor and delivery department is about finding the right balance between the expectations of the patients and their families and the ability to provide the best and safest care possible. I do not discount the opinions that are given in any forum and will continue to use those opinions to improve the care that we provide. I just want the community to know that our top priority is to provide you with excellent care. We know that you have choices in where you receive care and we hope that your choice leads you to North Alabama Medical Center.

Our Services

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Our Team

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Special thanks to Hannah Sumner Photography and Megan Crunk Photography for the beautiful photos. We would also like to thank the families that have delivered here at North Alabama Medical Center for allowing us to use their precious photos.