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Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is Editorial Director of Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea, Mom to Mom, Day to Day, and most recently Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Though she once struggled to separate her life and her work, the two …
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Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and they are the parents of five lively boys and one precious baby girl. She is the author of How Do You Tuck In A Superhero?, and is a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has …
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Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com, a Catholic web site focusing on the Catholic faith, Catholic parenting and family life, and Catholic cultural topics. Most recently she has authored The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also employed as webmaster for her parish web sites. …
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Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their young children Camilla and Blaise. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site is ABC Family. …
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Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is the managing editor of Faith & Family magazine. She is (yikes!) an almost 30 year-old, single lady, living in Connecticut with her two cousins in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law …
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Hallie Lord

Hallie Lord
Hallie Lord married her dashing husband, Dan, in the fall of 2001 (the same year, coincidentally, that she joyfully converted to the Catholic faith). They now happily reside in the deep South with their two energetic boys and two very sassy girls. In her *ample* spare time, Hallie enjoys cheap wine, …
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Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr John Bartunek, LC, STL, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and …
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Guest Bloggers

Kate Lloyd

Kate Lloyd
Kate Lloyd is a rising senior, and a political science major at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. While not in school, she lives in Whitehall PA, with her mom, dad, five sisters and little brother. She needs someone to write a piece about how it's possible to …
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Elizabeth Foss

Elizabeth Foss
Elizabeth Foss, an award winning columnist for the Arlington Catholic Herald, published her first book, Real Learning: Education in the Heart of My Home in 2003. The book is now in its third printing. Her popular blog, In the Heart of My Home is a source of inspiration and support for Catholic women …
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Knowing Your Health Care Options

Do you have a local children's hospital?

Posted by Lisa Hendey in Health on Wednesday, February 03, 2010 7:12 PM

Yesterday, I went on a “mom field trip” to visit my new friend Genevieve who has the enviable job of “Social Media Coordinator” at our regional children’s hospital, Children’s Hospital of Central California.  In her newly created position, Genevieve is using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to better educate the families of the Central Valley about her hospital, but more importantly about health care in general.  This is one cool lady, doing a fantastic job that will impact lots of families living in our valley.

During our tour of the NICU, Genevieve and I spent some time talking about how we wished we had been more educated about our health care options during our pregnancies.  I must admit that I gave absolutely no consideration to that horrible “what if” question and would have been completely unprepared had my boys needed neonatal intensive care services.  I thought about strollers, clothing, and a car seat, but not about what I would have done if one of my babies needed immediate treatment following his birth.  One of the things that is great about Genevieve’s new job is that she will have a voice to help new and first time moms think about these types of things before they actually might need to make a decision.

Strolling through the NICU and seeing the care being given to those tiny little treasures made my heart swell.  No mother wants to see her newborn preemie hooked up to equipment, but thankfully there are places like the Children’s Hospital of Central California where skilled and dedicated doctors and nurses are ready and waiting to help our children.

Do you have a local children’s hospital?  Have you—during your pregnancies or even now that you have children—given any thought to where you would go in the event of a health care emergency or crisis in your family?  Let’s say a prayer today, on the Feast of St. Blaise, for all of those providing health care services to our families.

Comments
6
Filed under babies, health care, hospitals, pregnancy

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 
Posted by Christina on Wednesday, Feb 3, 2010 11:10 PM (EDT):

I used to live 15 minutes from a fantastic children’s hospital but luckily never needed it. Now I live 300 miles from one and I REALLY hope that I don’t need it. Any emergency medical care that requires a children’s hospital or specialty health services involves a helicopter ride. I haven’t given much thought to it except to think that if my child needed to be there I would either have to get an apartment and live away from the rest of my children, or only visit the hospitalized child once or twice a month. I hope to God I will never have to be in that position.

 
Posted by Arwen Mosher on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 12:26 AM (EDT):

We live about fifteen minutes from the nearby large university’s children’s hospital. It’s where Blaise stayed last year when he was sick. I hope we won’t need it again, but I’m very grateful that it’s there.

 
Posted by Claire on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 8:14 AM (EDT):

There are three hospitals in my area that have NICUs.  If I were to carry a pregnancy to term, I would definitely deliver at one of those.  The problem with delivering a a hospital that doesn’t have a NICU is that first of all there is no neonatologist on staff to stablize the baby if there’s a problem, and if the baby requires transfer to a hospital with a NICU, the insurance won’t pay for the mother to transfer.  So the mother and baby end up being separated.

 
Posted by Lucy on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 10:57 AM (EDT):

I’m delivering my 2nd baby at the only hospital that has a level III NICU. While I’m hoping I don’t need it (I’m 37 weeks, so the likelihood is definitely low), I am glad that it is there. And the best children’s hospital in the country, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is just about 45 minutes away, should we ever need it.

 
Posted by Lisa Hendey on Thursday, Feb 4, 2010 12:10 PM (EDT):

Sounds as though you ladies have much more foresight than I had.  That’s great!!

 
Posted by Diane on Friday, Feb 5, 2010 12:14 PM (EDT):

Having three healthy babies, never dreamed of how a family’s life can be that has sick child.  When my daughter did get sick (she was spitting up blood), we were in an out of the Cleveland Clinic for almost a year before we found out the problem.  The social worker and Ronald McDonald’s presence in the hospital help us sooo much and we were so very grateful for them!!


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