READING, Pa. – This bright orange band is both a safety tool and an educational tool.
New mothers are now leaving Tower Health’s Reading and Phoenixville hospitals with a new safety measure.
“It’s just another tool for us to get help to those patients faster and just highlight that they’re in a special, very emotional transition period in their life and that they’re at higher risk for certain complications,” said Anna Bossert, an OBGYN at Reading Hospital.
The Post-Birth Alert Bracelet program is one of the first in the country.
It asks new mothers to wear these bright bracelets for six weeks after giving birth.
The bracelet can help emergency departments and other medical providers quickly factor in childbirth-related risks into their assessments.
“It’s one way that we can kind of keep that awareness present during those really critical first six weeks,” said Heather Enright, a perinatal safety nurse at Reading Hospital.
Health officials say the bracelets don’t just help providers identify physical conditions, but mental ones as well.
The Lindsay Clancy trial has put post-partum depression and psychosis in the spotlight.
Enright says programs like these can help make patients and physicians more aware and help remove stigma.
“Postpartum mental health should be discussed as routinely as postpartum bleeding and blood pressure, breastfeeding, safe sleep practices, newborn care,” said Enright.
They encourage mothers to keep the bracelets on for the full six weeks.
“Patient safety doesn’t just end when moms and babies leave our hospital. It’s part of our responsibility to make sure that we have our family set up for success,” said Enright.