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Maternity Care

Big Reasons to Have Your Little One at MarinHealth Medical Center

Every woman deserves a safe, meaningful labor and delivery that meets both her healthcare needs and her individual, cultural, and philosophical preferences. MarinHealth maternity care offers the services and expertise you need, close to home, including UCSF Health experts to provide specialized care for high-risk pregnancies and premature or ill newborns.

We are the only hospital across Marin and San Francisco to have a midwife-doctor team available in the hospital at all times. Expectant mothers may choose a delivery primarily attended by an OB/GYN or midwife, depending on their personal preferences and chosen prenatal care provider. Whether you would like your delivery to be physician-assisted, midwife-assisted, or a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), we have everything in place to plan for the kind of delivery you want.

In keeping with our philosophy of treating the whole person — body, mind, and spirit — we strive to provide an exceptional experience that delivers:

  • Confidence that we are giving you and your baby the highest level of medical care.
  • Control of your birth experience so you can have your baby, your way. We encourage women to fill out a birth preferences plan (available in English or Spanish) in advance. Prior to delivering at MarinHealth Medical Center, we also encourage you to familiarize yourself with what you need to bring to the hospital.
  • Comfort throughout labor and delivery, in a pleasant, nurturing atmosphere where all of your needs are met.

Safety

MarinHealth Medical Center has immediate access to all the monitoring equipment, technology, and specialists needed to keep mother and baby as safe as possible. There is a surgical suite and team onsite and at the ready 24/7 in the event a woman needs an emergency cesarean or other OB/GYN-related emergency surgeries. For midwife-assisted births, strict, written protocols determine when physician assistance is required, such as in the case of an emergency cesarean section. We have UCSF experts onsite to help bring high-risk pregnancies to term and help care for newborns with health issues in our Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

To ensure the security of your newest family member, we use the sophisticated Hugs infant protection system that electronically connects mother-and-baby’s ID bands.

MarinHealth Maternity Care is proud to achieve excellent outcomes, as evidenced by these important markers:

  • Low Cesarean Section Rate: MarinHealth Medical Center was named on the California Health and Human Services Agency’s (CHHS) Hospital C-Section Honor Roll for its achievement in low cesarean section delivery rates. We only perform cesareans, whether planned or unplanned, when medically necessary.
  • High VBAC Rate: High rate of successful vaginal births after a cesarean
  • High Breastfeeding Rate: An impressive 99 percent of our new moms choose to breastfeed.

We are a member of the California Maternity Quality Care Collaborative, devoted to eliminating preventable maternal death and injury and promoting equitable maternity care in California.

Rest assured you can safely have your baby at MarinHealth where you will receive an exceptional level of care.

Baby-Friendly® Designation

MarinHealth Medical Center is a participant in the Baby-Friendly Initiative, a global program sponsored by the United Nations International Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization. We are one of only 414 U.S. hospitals and birth centers (out of more than 6,000) to hold baby-friendly status, awarded to hospitals and birth centers that offer an optimal level of care to promote breastfeeding.

In order to receive this prestigious accreditation, we had to review and refine our procedures and adopt the following practices:

  • We train our staff to implement and promote our breastfeeding policy using the latest evidence-based data and educate moms-to-be about the importance of breastfeeding.
  • We facilitate “skin-to-skin” bonding at birth. Instead of being whisked away for a bath, our newborns are gently wiped down and placed on their mother’s breast. This encourages feeding behavior, helps mother and baby bond, keeps the baby warm, regulates blood sugar, and stimulates milk production.
  • Because babies don’t regulate their body temperature well at birth and are subject to stress from cold, we delay bathing for 12 hours. This practice allows the baby to begin breastfeeding and has many significant benefits such as maintaining newborn body temperature, heart rate, and bonding. We also delay weighing, measuring, and the administration of Vitamin K and eye ointment for an hour.
  • We practice “rooming-in,” so that mothers and infants can remain together 24 hours a day, and babies can be fed on demand.
  • We work with new moms to initiate breastfeeding within the first hour after the birth of their babies. Our specially trained nurses are available to help with breastfeeding as needed.
  • We teach mothers how to breastfeed and maintain lactation when they are away from their babies. Before we discharge every new mom, we provide referrals to breastfeeding support groups.

Childbirth Classes

Our childbirth preparation classes help parents and siblings get ready for the new arrival. Classes range from child and infant CPR to hands-on training for new dads. We also offer support groups for new moms. View a list of our 2024 classes or 2025 classes, or browse through our calendar of upcoming classes.

Take a tour of MarinHealth Maternity Care or call: 1-415-925-7575 if you have questions about delivering at MarinHealth Medical Center.