A Labor of Love

Three campuses, one mission. The Mother Baby Center connects Allina Health’s personalized pregnancy care and childbirth services with Children’s Minnesota’s world-class neonatal care to bring moms and babies together under one roof. Meet four families who are living proof of its success.

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For years, newborn babies were swept off to the nursery after birth, limiting mother-to-baby contact to short visits and scheduled feedings. It was thought that a well-rested mother would be better equipped to look after baby, spending those first few nights in the hospital largely apart.

Walking past the windows of the nursery at The Mother Baby Center reveals a different picture: There are no rows of bundled babies in bassinets. It’s mostly empty, and with good reason—once a baby is born and any maternal or infant complications are cleared, mother and baby are immediately united and remain so. 

The sense of togetherness is a theme that carries through The Mother Baby Center, a collaboration of Allina Health and Children’s Minnesota. Hallways bursting with vibrant colors and floor-to-ceiling wall art. Warm sunshine spilling into the open gathering spaces. A centralized birth experience, from the lowest risk mom who wants to deliver in the dedicated water birth room, to the highest risk mom or baby in need of close monitoring. 

With locations in Minneapolis, Coon Rapids, and St. Paul, The Mother Baby Center truly integrates normal- to high-risk obstetrics and infant care services, ensuring that all mothers and babies have access to family-centered care.

Jennifer and Sydney

Jennifer asks questions like it’s her job. That’s because, in a way, it unwittingly became one upon the arrival of daughter Sydney Grace, 18 months, at The Mother Baby Center in St. Paul, co-located with United Hospital and Children’s. “There was always someone available who could answer my questions, and I had a lot of them,” she remembers. “I really threw myself into her care and learned more in that time than I had in a while.”

“That time” she’s referring to is the three months between Sydney’s birth and her official discharge from Children’s Minnesota. “I was referred to The Mother Baby Center because of the great access they have to specialized care services,” says Jennifer, who had a premature rupture of membranes and was at a high risk of infection. The plan was for Jennifer to undergo 10 weeks of bed rest and deliver the baby at 34 weeks, the time when the risk of prematurity is less than the risk of infection. But as it turned out, fate had other plans: She delivered Sydney at 25 weeks.

“When I arrived at the Center, they started prepping me with the mindset that I could go into labor at any time,” she says. “I had a slow leak and certainly didn’t think I was having a baby shortly after my 24-week checkup.”

Sydney was deemed a micro preemie, weighing in at just one pound, 12 ounces. “Everything was there, she was just very tiny,” Jennifer recalls. Surrounded by the staff at the Center and the NICU transport team, she felt she was able to maintain a sense of normalcy during the birthing process. “When she arrived, the staff said, ‘Look, Mom, here’s your little girl!’ She had a lot of hair, which surprised me given the gestation stage,” she says. “They even allowed my husband to cut the cord.”

After a stop in mama’s recovery room, Sydney was immediately wheeled into the Children’s Minnesota neonatal intensive care unit, where she would spend the next 91 days.

There were small touches that made all the difference in those critical weeks that unfolded: visits to the Ronald McDonald House inside of Children’s Minnesota, where Jennifer and her husband, Ryan, would share meals and stories of hope with other parents; learning the hands-on care necessary for Sydney as she developed inside her isolette, an enclosed crib designed to create a womb-like environment for the tiniest of patients; NICU staff presenting Jennifer with a scrap fabric heart, intended to capture her scent as a means of comfort for Sydney while they spent their time in separate worlds.

“Her situation was, of course, critical, but not to the extent that we had to be there around the clock,” Jennifer says. “We felt the care was so exceptional that we could relax a little bit.”

So much so that when the time came for Sydney to come home, exactly 12 days before her official due date, saying goodbye was harder on Jennifer and Ryan than they could have imagined. “We wanted to take the staff home with us!” Jennifer laughs. “We didn’t know anything about anything before this journey, and they empowered us through it all with education and their support.”

Sydney is currently in Children’s NICU follow-up program, where she’ll continue to be monitored for the next year. By all accounts she’s right where she’s expected to be for her adjusted age. “She’s catching up to her peers,” Jennifer says. “She’s a happy baby who loves books, songs, and always finds ways to make us laugh!” care.

Haley and Felix

I’ve always felt that I needed to do purposeful work, and that’s where my career led me,” shares Haley Brunelle. As a yoga instructor, nonprofit founder, and former agency executive, leading with purpose and compassion is something that Haley was seemingly born to do. It also laid the groundwork for what would become the most important role of her life: motherhood.

“When my husband, Tim, and I went to the 20-week anatomy scan, it was clear that there would be a need for specialists,” Haley says. “During this transition, I noticed a lot of people in my yoga community talk about their delivery experience at The Mother Baby Center.”

After conducting independent research and crowdsourcing their own health and medical circles, she and Tim landed on The Mother Baby Center at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Children’s in Minneapolis. “It was a very calculated and educated decision to come to the Center,” she says. “And I would make the exact same decision over again.”

With her dreams of having a water birth becoming a distant memory, expecting the unexpected served as the hallmark of her pregnancy. “After learning my sweet boy was going to have a very rare chromosome deletion, we knew we needed to prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and figured we would fall somewhere in between,” she adds.

Haley met with Minnesota Perinatal Physicians (Allina Health physicians who specialize in high-risk pregnancies) twice a week from that point forward. “They started planting the seeds that I would be having a C-section,” she says. When she decided that “life would go on” after the C-section, she cites it as the transformational moment in which she officially became a parent. “I was willing to make this compromise for the health and safety of my baby, versus what I selfishly wanted for us as a birth experience,” she says.

Her water broke four weeks early due to high levels of amniotic fluid. “Going in, I felt somewhat in control and prepared when the time finally came at 1:30 am,” Haley says. This experience was the most differentiating part of delivering at the Center, she adds. “The transition from the perinatal group and high-risk care to the Center for delivery, and the NICU and neonatologists at Children’s, was seamless, to the point where I didn’t even realize I was at separate places.”

It also brought new meaning to the phrase “it takes a village.” From the surgeon who stepped in and swiftly received baby Felix, to her midwife, doula, and the OB doctors and nurses in between, “the extraordinary team went out of their way to make me feel special,” she says. “From start to finish, I was amazed at the surrounding optimism and strength during a time that would be challenging for anyone.”

The birth of Felix birthed a journey in its own right: #FelixNeptune. Known for being awash with highly polished and edited shots, Instagram has provided a platform for Haley and Tim to document their raw, honest depictions of parenthood.

“I’ve learned that the more you put out there, the more people come out of the woodwork,” she says. “You realize what you have in common with people who were previously uncomfortable with sharing.”

Followers of their journey know that baby Felix is a tenacious, fauxhawk-sporting, stuffed animal-loving 8-month-old, receptive to sounds of nature and music. He’s learning how to hold his head up, use his voice, and clap his hands together on command. His developmental milestones are owed, in large part, to his specialized team of PT, OT, speech, feeding, and hearing therapists who make routine visits to the Brunelle residence.

“He’s working hard and we’re working hard to make sure he grows to the best of his ability,” Haley says. “He’s teaching us hard lessons along the way in patience, acceptance, and how not to compare ourselves to others.”

As Haley eloquently puts it, every human is special, regardless of our age or ability. “Felix is just extra special and needs extra special people all around him to help do whatever his body will allow.”

Anne and Josephine

Anne Weber holds two titles with considerable overlap. A cardiac intensive care unit nurse and the mother of two small children, Evelyn Marie, 2, and Josephine Lynn, 7 months, Anne possesses the very traits needed to be effective in serving those who need care. “It kind of comes natural, being a mom and being a nurse,” she says.

Her experience in the cardiac intensive care unit reinforced the value of having access to specialty care services within close proximity. “My job has opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed before,” she says. In choosing the right environment to welcome baby Josephine, she was drawn to The Mother Baby Center at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids for its onsite Children’s Minnesota special care nursery and connection to neonatal intensive care services. A Mercy baby once herself, the choice was clear from the start. “I immediately knew I wanted to deliver there,” she says.

A self-described “hope for the best, prepare for the worst kind of person,” when Anne learned that she was going to be induced with baby Jo, she arrived at the Center cautiously optimistic—a characteristic undoubtedly learned from her time as a nurse.

“After they broke my water, baby wanted to hang out as long as possible, so my husband and I paced the hallways for a while to admire the beautiful artwork and paintings,” she says. “It gave us an opportunity to have some time together and decide on the baby’s name.”

When Anne’s contractions weren’t measuring strong enough, it took a couple of interventions—and some maternal goading—for baby Jo to make her long-awaited debut. “I can’t say enough positive things about the providers who were there, and my doctor giving me the added reassurance I needed in that moment,” she says. “You have to trust the medical professionals who are there with you.”

Those feelings of comfort followed her well after the delivery. She was met with a holistic postpartum care package, ranging from herbal bath soaks to acupuncture treatment and even massage therapy. “I was told, ‘Our massage therapist is here to see you,’ and I didn’t even have to ask for it!” she exclaims. “When it’s right there in front of you, it’s so much easier to say ‘yes’ rather than ‘what time?’”

She adds, “Having these therapies at my disposal was such a nice benefit, why not take advantage of what’s available to help you heal and get through a process that’s natural for your body?”

These days, baby Jo is as happy and healthy as her mama’s delivery, evidenced by her gummy smile and infectious gurgles and giggles.

“When people ask where they should deliver, my first response is one of the three Center locations,” she says. “After my friend toured the space, she said, ‘I felt like we were walking through a resort!’”

“The atmosphere at the Center is so conducive to having a healthy, healing birthing process,” Anne says. “I wholeheartedly believe they provide some of the best services in the metro area and at the state level.”

Meet the Towles

Making history doesn’t come with an age requirement. Ask Kristin Towle, mother to baby of firsts (and now 4-year-old), Gemma.

“The original [birthing] planwas to deliver at home, but three weeks before Gemma’s duedate, we decided to go with midwife providers who work with Abbott Northwestern Hospital,” Kristin says.

Allina and Children’s were preparing for the launch of The Mother Baby Center in Minneapolis, slated for February 4, 2013. With a due date of January 31, Kristin didn’t think delivering there was an option, expecting it would take place at Abbott Northwestern’s former birth center. But her due date came and went. “The night before the Center opened, I began having contractions,” she says.

Kristin and her husband, Michael, arrived at the Center just two short hours after the facility opened its doors. At 11:20 am, the couple’s fourth child, Gemma, was welcomed as the Center’s first baby, and recognized as the first water birth.

When literal push came to shove, Kristin was directed to the room’s special tub, larger than a typical bathtub and deep enough for water to cover the mother’s abdomen. The tub was lined with a team of nurses, including her midwife. “In between my contractions, the nurses were talking to me about how Gemma was going to be the first baby born there,” she says. “They were very gentle and accommodating.”

The Towles returned in 2016, once again with a midwife provider, for the birth of fifth child, Sijle. “I really enjoyed having a beautiful, calming atmosphere away from home to deliver the babies,” Kristin says. “It’s nice to know that there are lots of experts in delivery that are waiting to help you.”

Anatomy of a Room

Each labor and delivery room is designed for the comfort and convenience of mothers, babies, and their families, featuring modern amenities in a home-like setting.

1. Under one roof

Spacious quarters mean plenty of room for equipment so mother and baby can have regular checkups in the same space and rarely leave each other’s sight.

2. Soothing surroundings

Vibrant, cheerful colors are carried through each room to warm your mood when progesterone levels drop!

3. Stay charged

A smartphone docking station ensures you’ll never miss a photo opp to capture baby’s first everything, or forget to call Grandma with a play-by-play.

4. Home away from home

Each suite is furnished with the amenities you need, all within arm’s reach: a large-screen TV and cable, Wi-Fi access, a small refrigerator, and a luggage cart with a lockable safe.

5. Three’s company

Mother and baby don’t have to be the only ones rooming in. This couch doubles as a sleeper so your partner can remain comfortably by your side throughout your stay.

6. Discrete necessities

Soak in the comfortable confines of your own private bathroom, complete with a full-size bathtub, shower, and hair dryer.

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