Fort Worth hospital awarded highest designation for caring for expectant moms, babies
Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center in Fort Worth obtained the highest designation a hospital can receive for its care of expectant mothers and babies, the medical center announced Tuesday.
The Fort Worth facility is the first hospital in Tarrant County to be designated as a Level IV maternal care center, the top designation from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Eighteen other hospitals have the designation in Texas.
The designation is awarded to hospitals that provided the best and most comprehensive care possible for pregnant women and infants. Baylor Scott & White in Fort Worth was able to show the state that it provided that level of care on a daily basis, said April Bleich, M.D., medical director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Baylor Scott & White – Fort Worth.
“It was a really big honor to have the state recognize we were providing that care,” she said. “It’s a big deal.”
Texas State Health Services scrutinized the medical center’s policies, interviewed staff and conducted a two-day survey as part of the process. Receiving the designation was “a labor of love,” Bleich said — one that everyone in the hospital did their part to achieve.
One reason the facility can provide such higher level care is due to its array of specialists, including a dedicated Maternal Fetal Medicine Critical Care Team. Mothers who have a high risk pregnancy can receive round-the-clock care. Physicians and staff prepare and practice for scenarios when a mother might experience an unexpected complication.
“Our mindset here has always been be prepared for all possible scenarios,” Bleich said. “They don’t have to worry about possible complications if something unexpected happened. We’re ready.”
The hospital also uses those simulations as a teaching tool for other facilities. Nurses and physicians travel to rural medical facilities and run through possible scenarios with staff to help mothers, even if they are not patients at Baylor Scott & White.
The designation of maternal care centers is part of a statewide plan to lower the maternal death rate. Texas’ maternal mortality rate was 18.5 per 100,000 live births in 2018, the latest year for which comprehensive data exists. In all, 70 women in Texas died while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy in 2018, according to a 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Black women are disproportionately impacted — In 2017, Black women who were pregnant or recently gave birth in Texas died at a rate up to nearly three times higher than that of white women, according to the Washington Post.
“Recognition was the first step,” Bleich said about the maternal death rate. “Texas recognized this was a problem and it needed to be addressed.”
Baylor Scott & White’s women’s hospital in Fort Worth delivers more babies than any other Baylor facility at more than 6,000 babies per year. During a baby boom in August, the medical staff delivered 32 babies in the course of 24 hours.
Lindsay Richardson can personally attest to the care at Baylor Scott & White. The day before North Texas was hit by a historic winter storm, the Fort Worth mother had a C-section scheduled at the hospital. The hospital extended the family’s stay to make sure they did not have to drive on icy roads and made sure they had power and water before going home.
The care at Baylor is one of the reasons Richardson chose her OB-GYN in the first place.
“I heard so many wonderful things,” she said. “The lactation consultants were what drove me to Baylor specifically. They do a really good job supporting the new moms, and taking care of you when you are in such a vulnerable position.”
Richardson’s daughter was born without any complications on Feb. 13 at 7 pounds and 14.5 ounces.
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
