April 18, 2023

Mercy Medical Center introduces TeamBirth, a new initiative to improve childbirth

REGIONAL
Story and photos by David Martin

SPRINGFIELD – TeamBirth, a new initiative to enhance and improve the outcome of patients giving birth was launched at Mercy Medical Center during a press conference at the Family Life Center on April 14, at 10:30 a.m.

The announcement event was to share with community members how TeamBirth enhances the birthing experience and improves the outcome for patients giving birth and their babies. Dr. Robert Roose, chief administrative officer at Mercy Medical Center, offered a welcome to everyone who attended. He reminded them that the care at Mercy Medical Center is the mission and commitment of the Sisters of Providence whose work has been impacted in the community for the last 150 years.

Dr. Roose said the Sisters of Providence have a history of discerning the desires of the community, responding to their many needs, and implementing suggestions from community members on how they should offer and deliver care to patients in western Massachusetts.

“TeamBirth is a direct patient care initiative that is in the exact same spirit as the Sisters of Providence and the legacy of Mercy Medical Center,” he said, “one that continues to engage, to invite input and to respond to that input to meet the needs of the patients that we serve.”

Dr. Roos said as a father, as he and his wife expect the birth of their second son in five weeks, he can give personal testimony to the importance of communication between physicians, nurses, staff, and patients as they work as a team during the period of labor and delivery.

Dr. Roose also reminded attendees that it was Black Maternal Health Week and stated that TeamBirth is the perfect initiative that offers support to the health of women of color in the local community and throughout the United States. This received a loud round of applause.

Amber Weiseth, the director of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Ariande Labs in Boston where TeamBirth was created in 2017, said the results and feedback from patients and clinicians were very positive. Weiseth said the success of the initiative being utilized at 90 hospitals across the country has been recorded at her medical facility, a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. She said she is confident that TeamBirth will be an advantage for patients giving birth at Mercy Medical Center.

“TeamBirth is going to include them in the conversations so decisions will not be made about people, they will be made with them, so we call that shared decision making and it will allow them a voice in their care,” she said. “So, in all of our data and all of our research to date, TeamBirth makes a big difference to patients, they feel more included, they feel more empowered to speak up.”

Dr. Roose welcomed the political leaders who attended the announcement event including Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, who started his speech by high fiving the members of the medical staff, called them the all-star team, and said they should announce TeamBirth members like the starting line-up at a sporting event.

The director of the Family Life Center, Elizabeth Rottenberg, who is also the chief of OBGYN for Trinity Health, said another crucial aspect of the TeamBirth process is the presence of a white board in the delivery room to share health needs and daily improvements of the patient with team members. Dr. Rottenberg said the board will help put the patient at ease when trying to remember what their doctor said or suggested, as it will offer a record of that day’s visit and procedure with the birthing team.

After the press conference, a demonstration took place in an empty delivery room of how the white board would be filled out.

A video version of this story will be featured on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. on WWLP-22 NEWS.