St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network says it is seeing a record number of births, even as other health care systems in the country see declines or flattening of birth rates.<\/p>\n
For the first time in the network\u2019s history, more than 6,000 babies were born at St. Luke\u2019s three birthing hospitals during a fiscal year, which ends June 30, according to a news release from St. Luke\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The health network said the figure surpasses fiscal year 2024\u2019s total of 5,000 births, which at that time was a new record.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis major milestone reflects our patients\u2019 trust in, and desire for, the special care and expertise they experience in our\u00a0labor and delivery<\/a>\u00a0suites at\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s Allentown<\/a>,\u00a0Anderson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Upper Bucks<\/a>\u00a0campuses,\u201d said Elizabeth Dierking, MD, chair of the Department of\u00a0Obstetrics & Gynecology<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Number 6,000 was tiny baby Levi, arriving at 2:09 a.m. on Wednesday, June 10, at St. Luke\u2019s Allentown Campus, the network says. The 5-pound, 15-ounce and 20 \u00bd-inch-long infant is the son Kevin Kelenski and Eliza Oliveri of Orefield.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve met a lot of great employees over multiple shifts, due to the length of my time in labor,\u201d said Oliveri, a patient of St. Luke\u2019s Complete Women\u2019s Care in Fogelsville.<\/p>\n This past fall, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke\u2019s #1 – ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic – as the nation\u2019s top health system for quality, safety, and patient experience, the network said in its news release.<\/p>\n St. Luke\u2019s says its labor and delivery units feature 24\/7\/365 neonatology services.<\/p>\n The network says its Obstetrics & Gynecology Department includes a Maternal Fetal Medicine program with physicians providing care for all obstetrics patients including outpatient care, hospital consults, preconception counseling, genetics counseling and diabetes management.<\/p>\n Its Baby & Me comprehensive program offers lactation support, behavioral health care, pre- and post-natal classes, support groups, and other educational resources to help parents through every stage of pregnancy, St. Luke\u2019s said.<\/p>\n The Labor and Delivery Unit and Obstetric Anesthesia Service at St. Luke\u2019s Anderson Campus has been designated as Pennsylvania\u2019s third Center of Excellence (COE) by the Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology, according to the network\u2019s news release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network says it is seeing a record number of births, even as other health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,2760],"class_list":["post-216940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-st-luke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}