By Elizabeth Chorney-Booth

After giving birth to a baby girl this past December, Anusha Doppalapudi can say she has spent some of the most joyous moments of her life in Humber River Health’s maternal and child unit. Like many expectant parents, Doppalapudi took advantage of Humber’s comfortable private birthing suites and postpartum rooms, the modern technology that keeps both moms and babies as safe as possible, and the expertise of the hospital’s obstetric and paediatric teams. It’s an experience she says she’d gladly repeat if she chooses to have another child.

Doppalapudi’s satisfaction with the maternal and child program is not atypical. What may be surprising – and speaks volumes about the quality of care she received – is that she enthusiastically chose to give birth to her new baby at Humber, despite experiencing profound tragedy there only one year before. In 2022, after coming in for what she expected to be a normal birth, Doppalapudi’s doctors discovered her fetus did not have a heartbeat and had to be delivered as a stillborn. Medical staff determined the loss could not have been prevented or even anticipated, and hers was a rare case with no determinable cause. Naturally, Doppalapudi was beside herself with shock and grief, but she says the Humber team provided her with everything she needed to process her loss.

“They gave me more than just comfort,” she says. “They gave me time. I got to hold the baby for four or five hours, and they didn’t rush me. That is why I felt comfortable coming back. I specifically chose the same doctor, Dr. Lynn Sterling, and the same hospital.”

CARE CLOSE TO HOME

Doppalapudi lives close to Humber, and despite another birthing facility located nearby, she was confident Humber would give her the best possible care during and after her second pregnancy. Early examinations revealed that the new baby was small, so Dr. Sterling immediately referred her to Humber’s multidisciplinary Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) clinic, where she was monitored weekly to ensure both she and her baby were healthy.

“The MFM clinic also supports women with pre-conception counselling,” Dr. Sterling notes, adding that Doppalapudi did exactly that before her second pregnancy. “This is especially valuable if a patient has specific concerns about becoming pregnant.”

Established in 2020, the MFM clinic is just one of Humber’s many maternal and child outpatient clinics – expectant parents can also access experts in diabetes, nephrology, breastfeeding, early pregnancy complications, social work and nutrition, all on the same floor of the hospital. This wide range of services makes Humber more than just a hospital; it’s a community pregnancy and postpartum hub.

“Traditionally, patients who needed an MFM consult might be transferred to a downtown hospital, and that would mean leaving their community to deliver elsewhere, which is not as good for patient care,” says Dr. Lesley Hawkins, one of Humber’s OBGYNs. “The MFM clinic has allowed us to have a satellite service so we can still take care of our patients.”

Going in for that weekly monitoring allowed Doppalapudi to become comfortable with the facility and staff, reassuring her that she was receiving true patient-centred care. This was further illustrated when Doppalapudi was sent home to wait after being given induction medications by her physician. She felt like something wasn’t right. After calling her nurse, she returned to the hospital – not too much of an inconvenience since she lives nearby – and was immediately put on monitors so that doctors could react if she or the baby needed immediate attention.

This is where Humber’s Command Centre, an innovative data system that tracks patients throughout the hospital, comes into play. Humber is one of the only centres in the world where the Command Centre tracks rhythm strips from the fetus with a new interface, created by global tech giant GE, specifically to accommodate this data. This, along with the privacy given in the birthing suites, portable translation monitors for non-English-speaking patients, one-on-one nursing staff and a wide range of pain relief options, has earned Humber a reputation as one of the safest and most comfortable places in which to give birth in the GTA.

Dr. Hawkins says many of these measures are the result of consistent quality improvement measures, ongoing staff training and a willingness to embrace technology. “The hospital is very responsive to our team and also to patients who give feedback on what would be helpful,” she says.

PRIORITIZING NEWBORN HEALTH

The other piece in a new parent’s birthing experience is what happens after delivery if a newborn needs specialized paediatric care. Thanks to years of hard work and improvements, Humber is designated as a Level IIC Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU) facility, meaning it can care for babies at as early as 30 weeks’ gestation and as small as 1,200 grams. This eliminates the need for patients with very premature babies to seek care at a hospital outside of the community.

Doppalapudi’s new baby, Aarushi, was not that early or small, but she did need her abnormal blood sugar levels addressed. Doppalapudi found the NICU “so calm and soothing” that it was even more comfortable to be in than the nursery she’d prepared at home. With private rooms for each baby, staff on hand to answer any questions and regular rounds to ensure parents get a full picture of their babies’ progress, the NICU is designed to give newborns a good start while parents recover from delivery.

“The NICU is my favourite place in the hospital,” says Dr. Sally Kenawy, Humber’s Chief of Paediatrics. “We have a multidisciplinary team with a paediatrician, a neonatologist, a dietitian and occupational therapist, a lactation consultant, a social worker, and, of course, our NICU nurses, all involved in the care of what might be a tiny two-and-a-half-pound baby.”

The combination of that extra care, expertise, comfort and compassion toward patients reaffirmed Doppalapudi’s choice to entrust her second pregnancy to Humber. The convenience of having all of the services she needed in one place and the availability of the MFM clinic and the Level IIC NICU in her community made Humber the only facility she felt could fully meet both her medical and emotional needs.

“No matter the outcome, the staff at Humber gives you 100 per cent of their efforts,” Doppalapudi says. “Their compassion is the biggest thing. I never felt I was rushed at any time during my two pregnancies. Not in a single appointment.”

 

To read our full magazine, Care Closer to Home, click here.