NVH sets record with 500th baby

The birth center at North Valley Hospital set a record at the end of December 2010 when the 500th baby of the year was delivered at the facility. The birth marked a milestone for the center that has exponentially grown in popularity since moving into the new building on Hospital Way three years ago.

In fact, there has been a 100 percent increase in the number of babies born at North Valley since 2005.

“We moved here in 2007 and made a big jump that year,” birth center manager Cindy Walp said. “We’ve been steadily growing since then.”

Walp says the new building is only partly to credit for the increasing delivery numbers. It can also be attributed to the hospital’s willingness to cater to new and sometimes different birthing techniques.

“We all believe that people can have the birth they want as long as it’s safe,” Walp said. “I have people call me with specific requests. We check out their research, and if it’s safe, then that’s what we provide them. We bend over backward to make their birth they way they want it.”

North Valley is the only hospital in Montana to offer water births with an Aqua Doula, Walp said, and nearly half of their deliveries are with a midwife.

“We offer the most amount of choices of any hospital in Montana,” she reiterated.

Those choices are bringing clients in from all over the valley and occasionally from out-of-state. Forty percent of their deliveries are from Kalispell.

“We had births last year from Missoula, Ronan, Polson, Libby, Eureka and Cut Bank,” she said. “One woman who had her first baby here moved to Wyoming, but she came back here to have her second. She drove back and stayed with friends for two weeks until the baby was born.”

Andrew and Lucy Beltz, of Martin City, had their third baby delivered at North Valley last week. They said the laid-back environment and the option for a water birth kept them coming back to the center.

“They let you try different things,” Andrew said. “Some hospitals treat deliveries like a business. Here, it’s more at the pace you want it to be.”

There were a handful of exciting births in 2010, including a few celebrity babies and one that happened in the hospital’s parking lot.

“She was driving up from Bigfork and ended up having her baby in the back of a Subaru as the midwife was coming through the door,” Walp said. “We have a lot of quick births.”

The center expects to continue growing in 2011, but the nature of the business has peaks and valleys, Walp said.

“They’ll come in all at once, then we’ll have a little lull,” she said. “Rarely is it a consistent thing.”

To learn more about the birth center, visit online at www.nvhosp.org.