This spring, Virtua Health will open the Midwifery Birth & Wellness Center, the first and only freestanding birth center of its kind in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties.

Located near Virtua Voorhees Hospital, the family-focused birth center will offer home-like labor and delivery suites supporting the birthing option of one’s choice, including water births. The center will have a kitchen, comfortable lounge, private outdoor space and sibling play area to keep one’s family together as one awaits the birth of one’s child.

Physiologic, or natural, labor and birth emphasizes an unrushed, supported process, with less-invasive monitoring. Women give birth spontaneously, without an epidural or other obstetric intervention, unless it’s medically necessary. Pregnancy, labor and birth are seen as normal life processes, rather than conditions to be managed.

Facilitated by a midwife, a nurse and/or a doula that have undergone specialized training, physiologic births offer tremendous advantages for both mom and baby. During a normal, healthy birth, one’ body releases certain hormones intended to help one’s labor and manage discomfort. These hormones also help the baby transition to life outside the womb—maintaining a normal body temperature, breastfeeding successfully and bonding quickly.

For more information, visit Virtua.org/WeDeliver.

Virtua Health - 303 Lippincott Drive, Marlton, NJ

As one of New Jersey’s largest health systems, Virtua, a not-for-profit organization, helps people be well, get well and stay well through a comprehensive range of health care services. F... Read More »