Ashley Spears, Surgical Assistant with Covington Women’s Health Specialists, Explains the Benefit of Family Centered Cesarean Sections

* The following patient success story was developed with help from Piedmont Newton Hospital. If you would like to read the original piece, please click here. *

Ashley Spears thought she knew exactly what to expect as she prepared to deliver her second child at Piedmont Newton Hospital with Covington Women’s Health Specialists. As a surgical assistant with Covington Women’s Health Specialists, Spears spends a lot of time in the hospital’s Women’s Services department, and she had also delivered her oldest child at the hospital via cesarean section nine years earlier.

“Even though I’m working in the hospital on a regular basis, my experience as a patient was completely different,” said Spears. “As a patient, I experienced exceptionally personalized care. That’s one of the main benefits of delivering at a smaller hospital and with Covington Women’s Health Specialists. I received the same high-quality, clinical care patients think they have to travel to Atlanta to receive, and I was minutes from home. That’s incredible.”

Spears and her husband chose a family-centered cesarean section for her second child’s birth. Covington Women’s Health Specialists is proud to be the only practice in the Rockdale-Newton-Walton tri-county area offering these Family Centered Cesarean Sections. Just like during a vaginal delivery, our practice offers parents delivering by Cesarean Section the ability to watch the delivery, to see and hold their baby as soon as possible after birth, to enjoy skin to skin bonding, and cut the umbilical cord.

This process allowed both Spears and her husband to have more participation in the birth, including watching their son being born through a clear drape, her husband cutting the cord, and placing the baby immediately on her chest for uninterrupted skin-to-skin time.

“When my first child was born, I remember being sad because I felt like I only saw her briefly before she was taken to another part of the room to be measured and weighed,” said Spears. “With the family-centered c-section for our second child’s delivery, both my husband and I were able to fully engage in our son’s birth and the baby was immediately put onto my chest. It was an incredible experience for both my husband and me.”

Our very own Dr. Cathy Larrimore initiated the Family Centered Cesarean Sections in Newton County more than ten years ago. We’re proud to partner and deliver exclusively at Piedmont Newton Hospital where the Labor and Delivery staff is trained in the performance of Family Centered Cesarean Sections.

According to Spears, once she moved into a postpartum room, she experienced another change the hospital recently implemented; quiet time. Understanding that rest plays a role in healing, as well as gives new families uninterrupted bonding time, Piedmont Newton has ‘quiet hours’ from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. During quiet time, there will be limited disruption to patients to allow for rest and recovery.

“During the designated times, the entire department was quiet,” said Spears. “Hospitals are busy places, so to have those few hours of quiet gave us an opportunity to bond with our son, as well as get some much-needed rest without a constant influx of people in and out of the room.”

If you are expecting or planning to deliver by Cesarean section and would like to see us for your care, please call for an appointment 770-385-8954 or click here.