Unique Families Have a Caring Healthcare Home at Saint Alphonsus

Saint Alphonsus wants to help all families enjoy happy and healthy times together.

Most of us love to be with family. Families come in all shapes and sizes; large, small, blended, single-parent or extended. Saint Alphonsus wants to help all families enjoy happy and healthy times together.

We launched the Unique Families Program to be inclusive of the perinatal healthcare needs of all families. These include adoption, surrogacy, the LGBTQ+ community, socially complex, and those struggling with substance use disorder, sexual assault, and domestic violence.

These families have unique needs, and our providers are trained to offer neutral and compassionate care. This program serves any family who needs extra coordination during their prenatal period. These services include planning for hospital time and offering a “warm hand-off” to community resources after discharge.

All the perinatal nurses, leaders, and support staff went through extensive training with the Family-to-Family Support Network. That training ensures that our policies and practices are aligned with the most up-to-date standards of care for all families. The program goes further regarding preparation as it created a role called the OB Nurse Navigator. In this role, I am privileged to help families as the point-person for the Unique Families Program. My job includes care coordination with community partners (agencies, attorneys, etc.), being a contact for families to handle their questions or concerns and maintaining staff education about neutral compassionate care.

Each hospital within the Saint Alphonsus Health System has physician “champions” who are excited to help these families. It can be stressful to find a provider you can trust when you are worried about judgement, bias, or misinformation regarding your life situation. This can become a barrier to receiving care, which can negatively affect health outcomes. While our providers are trained to treat unique families with care and compassion, our site champions work closely with me to ensure we deliver a safe, neutral environment to everyone seeking care.

The program’s goal is to ensure that delivering a baby with Saint Alphonsus is a wonderful, life-changing experience, no matter who you are or what your family’s situation is. Our mission as a Catholic healthcare ministry is to serve in the spirit of the Gospel as a compassionate and transforming healing presence within our communities.

The Unique Families Program aligns with our Core Values: Reverence, Commitment to Those Who are Poor, Safety, Justice, Stewardship and Integrity. This innovative program and the colleagues who care for its participants honor the sacredness and dignity of every person while providing a culture that prevents harm and nurtures a healing, safe environment.

We want every family to be able to gather for years to come and celebrate the miracle of life with loved ones in a healthy and dignified way. We also want them to know that they have a healthcare partner for life.

For more information, or to connect with us to talk about your upcoming delivery, go to the Unique Families web page.

Kayli Lewis, RN, is a Nurse Navigator for the Unique Families Program at Saint Alphonsus