Exceeding expectations in its first full year of operation, the Natural Beginnings Birth Center at Atrium Medical Center has met the demand of women in the Cincinnati region for a natural birth choice in a safer hospital setting.

Natural Beginnings Birth Center—the first comprehensive natural birth center in the greater Cincinnati area located within an acute care hospital—began offering services in December 2016. During the first year, 72 women opted to have their natural birth at Atrium in Middletown.

The natural birth program provides expecting mothers services to cope with labor without traditional interventions. Two private natural birthing suites for labor and delivery are part of the hospital’s Family Birth Center, offering an additional safety net of nursing and medical staff nearby who can respond with emergency and surgical care if necessary. The remodeled suites, which opened for patients in May 2017, feature queen-sized beds, built-in jacuzzi tubs and more space for a family-friendly experience.

“It’s empowering to know what your body can do, that you can work through the intense pain and bring this child in to the world without medication. After three kids, we moved here from Illinois and I chose the Natural Beginnings Birth Center at Atrium because they would let me and my husband Adam have the natural birth we wanted for our daughter Isla,” said Trina Brucker, of Maineville.

“At Natural Beginnings, I had a midwife with me the whole time, helping me through it. I wanted a water birth and the birth tub was right in the room with me. Every single person at Natural Beginnings respected our wishes and that’s enormous,” Brucker added

Overall, deliveries grew 6.6 percent at Atrium Medical Center from 896 births in 2016 to 956 deliveries in 2017. Last year’s growth includes babies born as part of the Natural Beginnings program.

“This is a beautiful, home-like birth center, letting you labor, deliver and recover in the same room, with options available such as massages, aromatherapy, water birth, and other supports,” said Dr. Rhonda Washington, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Atrium Medical Center. “The real plus to Natural Beginnings at Atrium is you have people—midwives, nurses and board-certified obstetricians—who believe and support your goals of having a non-medicated birth experience.”

For more information about Natural Beginnings at Atrium and how to enroll, call (513) 974-4291 or visit www.AtriumMedCenter.org/NaturalBeginnings. Mothers-to-be interested in touring Natural Beginnings can also call (513) 974-4291 to arrange a tour time.

Atrium Medical Center is a full-service hospital and Level III Trauma Center conveniently located along the Interstate 75 corridor at exit 32, One Medical Center Drive in Middletown, between Cincinnati and Dayton. The hospital employs approximately 1,500 people in full-time, part-time and on-call positions. Atrium is operated by the Dayton-based nonprofit Premier Health system.