After five births and a miscarriage, Kelly Gates understands the value of a winning labor and delivery team.
With her oldest son pitching for USC and her other children heavily involved in sports, Kelly Gates knows the hallmarks of a winning team: good communication, collaboration and mutual respect. That’s exactly what she found in her care team at Orange Coast Medical Center. Though she had no previous experience with Orange Coast Medical Center, a trusted friend recommended the hospital when Kelly became pregnant with her fourth child.
“I had a terrible experience at another hospital, and I wasn’t about to go back,” says Kelly. “Orange Coast Medical Center was completely different. They listened to me. They worked with me at my pace, not theirs, and they gave me choices. With the support of my family and primary care physician, Stanley Arnold, M.D., with Edinger Medical Group, the decision proved to be the right one.”
In early 2008 and 2012, Kelly gave birth to a son and then a daughter under the care of Gerardo Bustillo M.D., OB/GYN with MemorialCare Medical Group and medical director of minimally invasive surgery at Orange Coast Medical Center. Because two of her three previous births had been by caesarean section, these babies were delivered in the same manner.
“At Orange Coast Medical Center, we focus on giving women choices. We guide them; we provide them with treatment options, but we don’t tell them what to do. The doctors, nurses and patients are all part of the same team,” states Dr. Bustillo.
THE HOME RUN
The six labor and delivery rooms at Orange Coast Medical Center provide patients like Kelly with a stress-reducing, home-like environment that offers all the medical safeguards of in-hospital delivery, including two dedicated operating rooms, fetal-health testing rooms and an anesthesiologist who works exclusively with labor and delivery patients. Nearby, on the same floor, there’s a level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with a neonatologist available 24 hours a day.
Each year, approximately 1,500 babies are delivered at Orange Coast Medical Center with more than 30 OB/GYNs, six midwives and a highly skilled nursing staff providing compassionate, patient-centered care. This attentive, high-quality medical care; however, is just part of the formula. Prenatal classes in childbirth, breastfeeding and baby-care basics are offered in both English and Vietnamese. Lactation consultants are available to assist mothers with breastfeeding issues, and for premature infants, skin-on-skin Kangaroo Care is encouraged to strengthen parent-child bonds and promote healthier babies.
AN UNEXPECTED LOSS
In 2015, Kelly discovered that she was pregnant for a sixth time. She called Dr. Bustillo’s office to make an appointment, but learned that he was not working in obstetrics, but had decided to focus his practice exclusively to gynecological care. Determined to have her baby at Orange Coast Medical Center, Kelly found Linh Nguyen, M.D., OB/GYN and made an appointment.
“Having a child is a personal experience every woman remembers for life. Our doctors and nurses understand this, treating each patient with individual care from their first appointment through labor and delivery,” says Dr. Nguyen.
Kelly was 16 weeks and six days pregnant when she arrived for her first appointment. The nurse practitioner took her history and placed the Doppler against her belly to monitor the baby’s heartbeat but heard nothing.
When an ultrasound confirmed the worst, Dr. Nguyen had to inform her new patient that her baby had not survived. Kelly was crushed, but listened to her doctor as she comforted her during this time of loss.
“I left Orange Coast Medical Center at peace. From the first time I arrived there, they made me feel l was in the best care. I’m grateful to have had my two children there, and to have received the very best, most personalized and compassionate care available. Through good days, and not so good days, they were always by my side,” says Kelly.
Today, Kelly, her husband and their five children embody the idea of a sports team, tightly bonded and loyal to each other. She is grateful for her family’s love and their shared love for sports.
For more information about the center for childbirth at Orange Coast, please visit the section on Orange Coast Medical Center.
To find a provider, visit our providers page.