By Kelli Kirwan for LIFELines
You're having a baby! Thoughts of bassinets, and strollers, are running through your head at a high rate of speed. At the same time you're trying to decide between cloth and disposable diapers, you're also thinking of doctors, medical options, and birth plans.
The good news is, you don't have to decide everything within 24 hours of your test results. The exciting news is, Navy medicine is not only on the cutting edge of maternity care, but is leading the field in providing family-centered care nationwide to meet the unique needs of military families.
What's best for you? An epidural or natural pain control? Lamaze or Bradley? Who can or will be with you at the big event? If you're a Navy or Marine Corps spouse, you're circling due dates and deployment dates on the calendar while counting the weeks in between. If you're a service member, you're thinking ahead to juggle sea duty and shore duty. Now more than ever before, Navy medicine is meeting the needs of the whole family in terms of support, education and facilities, not just the mother-to-be.
Family-Centered Care Concept
Consumers have spoken and the Navy was listening. Times have changed, as have the roles of fathers and other family members in the birth experience. The Navy is moving into the 21st century with a Navy-wide effort to help prepare the entire family for the new arrival.
Refocusing on the needs of the entire family while giving more control to parents means only good things for Sailors, Marines, and their new babies. Through surveys, discussions, and by listening to families, the Navy has identified several goals to begin moving toward their new family-centered care.
More Continuity of Care
Navy medicine is providing more continuity of care, so mothers can see the same one or two doctors in Navy clinics for the duration of their pregnancy. It is important to note that it's always a good idea to see other delivering doctors at least once during your prenatal care. Circumstances and military obligations may cause your regular doctor to be unavailable for your delivery.
It's not much different in the civilian community — doctors often require their patients to see every doctor in their practice at least once during pregnancy. If they are in a practice alone, they have another doctor who can cover for them if they are unavailable. They too cannot guarantee who will attend you at delivery.
Better Access to Services
Numerous Navy facilities are striving to make parking, appointments, and clinics more accessible to patients. They are also working toward providing private rooms for all new mothers. Some facilities may take longer than others because they have to go through the budget process to receive the funding if they need to construct new facilities to meet the goal of family-centered care. Many of the larger Naval hospitals are currently able to provide most of these services, but those that can't now hope to do so in the near future.
More Ultrasound Availability
In the past, routine ultrasounds have not been available to every expectant mother. Even though ultrasounds are more valuable in high-risk pregnancies, the Navy hopes to make second-trimester ultrasounds available to all patients because they are useful in assessing the fetus' anatomy and confirming the due date. The field of radiology may delay this goal, as there is a shortage of radiologists, radiology techs, and ultrasound technicians.
Better Lactation Support
Breast-feeding is one of the best things you can do for your baby. Unfortunately, breast-feeding doesn't always come easily or naturally to mother or newborn. Numerous women become discouraged and give up sooner than they might have if they'd had better support through the Navy hospitals. So the Navy is moving to improve current lactation support and extend availability to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Better Patient Education
The Army is currently making the same changes as the Navy, and is deeply committed to developing better family care when it comes to babies. Cross-sharing of information and service-wide continuity of care is good news for Navy and Marine Corps families who find themselves in areas where their needs are being met by Army medical facilities.
Several areas for which the Navy wants to provide better education are prenatal exercise, nutrition, healthy habits, and classes for fathers and siblings. Having a baby requires more than preparation on the mother's part. The goal is to help the entire family prepare, adjust, and have the best possible experience welcoming their new baby home.
Whether this is your first baby or your fifth, every birth is unique, and affects your whole family. Naval medicine is acknowledging the importance of the whole family with the concept of family centered care. There is power now behind the concept that "family readiness equals force readiness." The changes being made in Naval medicine show that this is no longer a catchy phrase, but reality for today's military.
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