EMH Family Birth Center
Maternity Services in Cleveland and Elyria, OH

Opened in 2002 on none other than Labor Day, the Family Birth Center at EMH Elyria Medical Center consists of 18 spacious, home-like rooms and two operating rooms. During the past eight years, the Family Birth Center has delivered more than 9,000 babies! Mothers-to-be and their families are treated to large, private, beautifully-appointed rooms – some with oversized bath tubs for hydrotherapy. The suites are designed such that women stay in the same room throughout their birth experience, including labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum. Accommodations for a family member or support person of their choice are available in each room, and new mothers are encouraged to keep their babies with them in their rooms whenever possible. The EMH Family Birth Center has an open visitation policy, which mothers and their doctors will discuss in order to determine what is right for them. For those who cannot visit in person, we offer “Wi-Fi” service for patients and guests, so they can keep families and friends updated throughout their stay.

The EMH Family Birth Center has board certified obstetricians available 24 hours per day, seven days per week, and a nurse anesthetist is on-site around the clock. In addition to our obstetricians, patients may also choose to utilize the services of one of our certified nurse midwives. 

The EMH Family Birth Center features a Level II Special Care Nursery with a neonatologist on call at all times. Additionally, EMH is able to provide a high level of obstetric and neo-natal care, including women with gestational diabetes, hypertension or those who are at risk for pre-term labor.

For women who have special wishes about their childbirth experience, and want to be an active participant in determining their birth plan, the EMH Family Birth Center offers “EMH Natural Beginnings – a holistic birth experience.”  This program empowers women with low-risk pregnancies to choose their providers, pain options and interventions while in the comfort and safety of the EMH Family Birth Center. 

EMH Natural Beginnings

EMH Natural Beginnings is based on the philosophy that pregnancy is a state of health and birthing is a natural process. While in the EMH Natural Beginnings program, mothers-to-be enjoy the comforts of one of our private home-like birth suites for as little as six hours after delivery to as long as 24 hours, based on their wishes and the recommendations of their healthcare provider. One of the many benefits of the program is that if at any time the patient’s birth plan changes, or they experience complications during delivery, the appropriate medical interventions are immediately available as part of the EMH Family Birth Center.

EMH also features a robust healthy pregnancy and childbirth education program, along with internationally board certified lactation consultants on staff to assist with breastfeeding.