What is a perinatal nurse navigator?
Perinatal nurse navigators work with your care team to help make the journey from pregnancy to labor and delivery easier for mother and baby.
Having a baby is a lot.
Whether it’s your first baby or your fifth, figuring out the healthcare complexities of where you need to go, at what time, to see who, for exactly what can be daunting.
With a perinatal nurse navigator as your guide, your stress level can drop a notch. Breathe!
From the time your pregnancy is confirmed through your labor and delivery, a nurse navigator can ease your path, helping you navigate the bewildering array of specialists and appointments, answering your questions and offering prenatal health education.
“We’re kind of the bridge between mom’s pregnancy and the hospital and bringing mom in and helping her navigate that situation,” said Wendy Whitford, a labor and delivery nurse at Medical City Alliance Hospital.
Your nurse navigator serves as your liaison between you and your healthcare team, including your doctors, nurses and hospital. Your perinatal nurse navigator is an advocate for you. They will ensure your preferences and values are respected. They will help you communicate with your healthcare team to promote shared decision making and a “you”-centered approach to care.
‘I can’t do this by myself’
The nurse navigator offers a holistic approach to your pregnancy, ensuring all aspects of your care are coordinated, which will help you breathe easier, knowing you have someone you can reach out to for answers. You can focus on the important stuff – taking care of yourself and your growing baby.
Your navigator provides a compassionate presence to provide guidance and resources for coping with the ups and downs of the perinatal journey.
Your navigator will help keep you on track for attending appointments and for sticking with your care plan. They can also connect you and your family with community resources and support services, such as breastfeeding support groups, childbirth classes and mental healthcare. They will make sure you have a tour of the hospital, from the labor and delivery departments to the NICU.
‘This is too confusing!’
Complex healthcare systems and an evolving health payment landscape are bewildering for even well-informed patients to find and use healthcare resources, according to an article in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Seriously, if you’re not a doctor yourself, who can keep up?
A perinatal nurse navigator can be effective in ensuring that all patients, at every income level, have better access to healthcare, a better delivery and overall better outcomes by helping women negotiate the complex and pivotal aspects of their care. We get it -- the paperwork alone can be killer.
The more barriers to care that your navigator can knock down, the better results for both you and your baby.
‘Worrying about my diagnosis is enough; I can’t worry about everything else too’
For women with complicated pregnancies, navigation becomes even more important. Navigators can provide connections to all the necessary maternal and fetal specialists, as well as doctors who will help manage wider medical issues, such as a new diabetes diagnosis. The nurse navigator can coordinate the many services you may have to encounter -- from nutrition consultations to specialized ultrasounds to lab visits to extra fetal surveillance. Every step requires scheduling and perhaps emotional challenges; the nurse navigator is there to guide you through the process and serve as an additional layer of support for you.
“An OB will generally refer a mom to the perinatal nurse navigator program,” said Whitford. “The nurse navigator here at the hospital can guide her through that difficult and sometimes confusing process of either a difficult pregnancy or maybe just needing an extra consult with a neonatologist.”
No matter what conditions you may be facing, your nurse navigator is fully committed to a high-quality, family-centered pregnancy and delivery for you and your baby. Relax. Your perinatal nurse navigator is here.
Medical City Healthcare delivers healthier tomorrows for moms, babies and families.
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