A room in St. Luke’s Allentown Campus’s new Women & Babies Pavilion. (Contributed photo)
With a snip of oversized shears, a mother who gave birth to her first child at St. Luke’s Allentown Campus cut a ceremonial ribbon Monday to open its new Women & Babies Pavilion. The expanded facility will increase the community’s access to high-quality birthing, post-partum and newborn services, including neonatal intensive care.
The five-story, 85,000 square-foot tower, built onto the east side of the hospital, will meet growing patient needs for these services at the Allentown campus. Babies will be delivered there starting Feb. 14.
Monday marked a significant milestone in St. Luke’s continued commitment to providing exceptional care for mothers and infants, as well as a delivery on the promise for a bigger and better hospital for SLUHN patients and the community.
“This incredible facility is complemented by the most amazing and caring team of providers, nurses and support staff who work as a team to ensure the best experience for expecting families,” said Bill Moyer, St. Luke’s West Region President.
The new addition, which doubled the size of the hospital’s previous unit, can accommodate several thousand patients a year.
Three floors of the wing are being put into service immediately. The second floor houses the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where babies born prematurely will be cared for. LifeAire air purification technology creates an ultra-sterile, negative air flow environment in this unit to protect the tiny and often ill newborns, their parents and caregivers from infections.
The third floor’s Labor & Delivery Unit and fourth floor Post-partum Unit contain additional rooms and amenities, with each floor almost twice the size of the hospital’s former unit.
“We are thrilled to give patients access to this brand-new facility, new services and an increased level of care, which enables babies to remain in their own community with their families,” said Elizabeth Dierking, MD, Chair of St. Luke’s Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. “Delivering access to safe care of the highest quality starts families on a happier and healthier journey.”
St. Luke’s Allentown has been voted the Morning Call Readers’ Choice as the Best Place to Have a Baby. St. Luke’s patients get to know their physician through their prenatal care and that physician will then deliver their baby. The state-of-the-art birthing units there offer parents the comforts of a safe, family-centered atmosphere to welcome their new babies into the world. St. Luke’s is a leader in perinatal care, high-risk deliveries and breastfeeding education. Its NICUs provide advanced care to critically ill newborns and premature babies.
The building’s ground, first and fifth floors are shelled in for future use. Construction site preparation and renovations to existing hospital “tie in” points began in August 2022. Excavation work for the new tower began in November 2022, and the structure’s first steel beams were erected the following month.
This community health news was brought to you in partnership with St. Luke’s University Health Network.
From top left to right: Jessika Haynos, Fadel Balawi, Richard Anderson, Bill Moyer, Elizabeth Dierking, Nicole Nye and Israel Zighelboim. From bottom left to right: Allison Blackburn, Betsy Schmeltzle, Peter Sawin, Emelia Milano-Sawin, Kristin Milano, Keri Angelozzi, Joel Fagerstrom and Jennifer Janco. Kristin Milano’s daughter was born at the Allentown Campus in 2018 and she will deliver her second child there in May. (Contributed photo)
