Hospital birth information suggests that didnât happen in Lancaster County.
The countyâs three hospital systems â Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, UPMC Lititz and WellSpan Health â recorded 6,145 births in 2020. Thatâs slightly more than the 6,086 births in 2019, a roughly 1% increase, but less than the 6,259 in 2018.
Hospital births account for the majority of babies born in Lancaster County but not all.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has not yet released 2020 data.
LNP | LancasterOnline was able to examine births from the countyâs health systems going back only to 2018, the year after UPMC acquired the Heart of Lancaster Regional Medical Center.
Oshakee Zink didnât know she was pregnant with her fourth child when the pull of opioids dragged the 28-year-old out of recovery and back into addiction.
Having had a son born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, and not wanting that for her daughter, Zink weened herself off opioids in her first trimester with the help of Subutex, a brand-name drug used to help with opioid dependence and withdrawal.
Little did Zink know that a flier her family doctor provided about a doula initiative through Patients R Waiting would prove pivotal in delivering naturally a healthy 6-pound, 7-ounce baby girl named Keyairah Jones on Jan. 22.