CHILLICOTHE, OH (November 7, 2022) – Like many other first-time mothers-to-be, Chillicothe resident Lillian Burnett didn’t truly know what to expect when she went to Adena Regional Medical Center in early May to give birth.

She admits that she probably had done too much research on the Internet between physician visits, especially when it came to watching video blogs of women giving birth from around the country and sharing their horror stories of the bad experiences they had.

Simply put, she was nervous and she was scared.

Despite what would be a 25-hour labor that produced a healthy son, Harrison, Lillian was pleased to discover that the team from Adena Women and Children’s Center provided her with the right mix of comfort and confidence just when she needed it most.

“I normally don’t go into something with high expectations so that way I’m not let down, but Adena seriously exceeded what I was expecting,” she said. “I did not expect to be checked on as much as I was and I didn’t expect them to explain things as much as they did. I had never heard anything bad about labor and delivery at Adena, but I didn’t expect it to be this good.”

The high standards and quality of care Lillian and other patients like her have come to expect from Adena have recently been recognized nationally as Money magazine, in partnership with non-profit health care consumer advocate The Leapfrog Group, named Adena Regional Medical Center to its list of the Best Maternity Care Hospitals in the United States.

In compiling its list of top maternity hospitals, maternity care data submitted through the 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Survey was analyzed from the more than 2,200 hospitals that participated in the survey. To qualify for consideration, hospitals had to carry a letter grade of “A” or “B” on the spring Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade assessment and meet several criteria specific to providing maternity care.

Of those 2,200-plus hospitals, only 259 from across the country were selected for inclusion on the list. Those 259 included both hospitals that provide care for uncomplicated pregnancies and those that provide care for high-risk deliveries through the availability of such amenities as neonatal intensive care units and other offerings.

For Lillian, throughout the labor and delivery process, the most important amenity became the Adena caregivers she encountered, beginning the with first nurse to care for her.

“I remember asking the nurse about getting the epidural and sharing with her what I was experiencing from the research I had done before I came in and she just had so much knowledge to give me that brought me so much peace as she explained everything so thoroughly,” Lillian said. “She held my hand the whole time, she was rubbing my back for me, I just felt like I’d known her for years. She was like an old friend who was just so nice and encouraging.”

That feeling didn’t fade with each shift change during her lengthy labor, with her second nurse constantly checking in on her and doing whatever she could to try moving the labor along and yet another who supported her during the more than two hours she was pushing to bring Harrison in the world.

“I remember I had my eyes closed the whole time and I had my husband there with me and my stepmom,” she recalled. “The nurse just kept sending out words of encouragement that I was strong and able and I just remember her and my stepmom counting down for me during pushes. Then, Dr. (Rebecca) Pareja stayed after her call just to make sure I was comfortable.

“With everybody there, I just felt like I was the only patient. They were just so concentrated on if I was OK, if things were going well with me, which was so nice.”

To learn more about maternity care and women’s health at Adena, visit Adena.org/women.