Baby Boom In South Hillsborough Leads To Hospital Expanded Labor Unit

RIVERVIEW, FL — The stork is busy at St. Joseph’s Hospital-South in Riverview. Since the hospital opened in 2015, the number of babies delivered in the hospital’s labor and delivery unit has nearly tripled.

In 2015, the hospital delivered 613 babies while in 2022 the number of deliveries was 1,834. St. Joseph’s Hospital-South set its record for the number of deliveries in seven of the eight years since opening in 2015.

To keep up with the growing community need, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South recently opened a mini-expansion that includes three new labor and delivery rooms and two assessment/triage rooms.

A triage/assessment room is an examination room where expectant mothers are checked and monitored before admission to a labor and delivery room or discharged if they are not ready to deliver.

The new additions bring the number of private, labor and delivery rooms from seven to 10 while assessment/triage rooms increased from five to seven private rooms. The addition also includes additional nursing administration workspace. The total cost of the expansion was around $2 million.

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“With our maternity volume growth, these added rooms allow more flexibility in scheduling inductions and C-sections procedures while still allowing for care of our walk-in patients,” said Michelle Landy, St. Joseph’s Hospital South’s operations director.

The hospital also has 24 private mom and baby rooms for after delivery, which offer all the comforts of home.

The additions follow pediatrics and maternity expansions at the hospital in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, the hospital added a pediatric inpatient unit with 12 private rooms. In 2021, the hospital opened an 11-bed NICU for babies born prematurely or with special health needs.

“Since our opening in 2015, the community has seen a 20 percent population growth,” Landy said. “We have been fortunate enough to be able to expand our services and space to meet the needs of our community with our latest expansion supporting childbirth and women’s services.”

St. Joseph’s Hospital-South Annual Baby Deliveries:

• 2015- 613
• 2016- 962
• 2017- 1,048
• 2018- 1,040
• 2019- 1,166
• 2020- 1,201
• 2021- 1,709
• 2022- 1,834