The Bluewater Health Foundation says a $1-million donation pledge from the Rotary Club of Sarnia has helped improve the hospital's Maternal Infant Child Program. Executive Director Kathy Alexander accepted the club's latest installment of $100,000 during its luncheon at the Best Western Guildwood Inn Monday afternoon. She says the $1-million pledge, made before the hospital was built in 2010, has helped purchase much-needed equipment. "Initially part of it went towards the bricks and mortar of the new unit," she says. "Some of the equipment that we purchased is things from beds to neonatal infant warmers, birthing blankets that keep the babies warm upon delivery, bedside monitors for infant's heart rates."
The donation has also helped enhance the hospital's model of care for labour, birth, recovery and post-partum (LBRP) to be offered in one room. Alexander believes foundation donations towards hospital enhancements help make Bluewater Health more appealing to physicians wanting to come in to the community. In 2013, a full-time anesthesiologist was hired to administer epidurals around the clock.
"Epidurals weren't even a service provided in Sarnia-Lambton. Women were actually leaving our community to have their babies in other communities that offered that service," she says. Over 1,000 babies are born at Bluewater Health each year.