Bringing your baby into the world

We’ll give your baby thorough, professional, loving attention in the important seconds and minutes after birth. We’ll treat your child with the utmost care.

Once your baby is born...

• We gently and carefully dry your baby.
• We remove mucus from your baby’s nose or mouth with a syringe.
• We bundle your baby in a soft, warm blanket or in a warming bed, with a monitored temperature, right beside you.
• We give your baby a cap with a ribbon — pink for girls; blue for boys (yes, you can take this home).
• We put matching ID bracelets on you and your baby, along with one for your primary support person.
• A safety bracelet will be placed on your baby.
• We give your baby a shot of vitamin K to prevent bleeding.
• We treat your baby’s eyes with an antibiotic ointment to prevent infection.
• We make a second set of baby footprints — for a keepsake birth record that we will mail to you at home.
• We carefully observe your baby’s temperature, heartbeat, breathing, color and muscle tone, which results in an Apgar score. We may do this twice. When everything meets our approval, we bathe, dress and diaper your baby.
• To make sure your baby’s blood sugar isn’t too low, we sometimes test a drop of blood.
• We then weigh your baby in either the delivery room or the nursery.
• On rare occasions, a baby may need to go to our Special Care Nursery so that we can be very sure of their best possible start in life. If this is necessary, you will be involved and assured of the necessity and reasons with complete frankness on the part of our staff.
• During your baby’s stay in Lexington Medical Center, we will provide a Universal Hearing Screening to detect early hearing loss. This statewide initiative could make a tremendous difference in your child’s quality of life.
• If your doctor approves, you can begin bonding with your baby immediately in your own room.
• Our rooming-in policies allow you and your baby to spend almost all of your hospital stay together if that is your choice.