First newborn care center opens in CSRA, brings peace of mind to parents

Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020

News 12 This Morning

EVANS, GA (WRDW/WAGT) -- If you're a parent, you might be familiar with the anxiety of bringing your baby home for the first time.

A brand new newborn care center just opened in Evans, and it answers questions about both mom and baby. It's called Bella Bambino Newborn Care Center, and it's the first of its kind in the Augusta area.

The facility says ideally, babies would be brought in for an appointment within the first week of their life, but they said they'll answer questions and see babies up to a few months old.

"We're totally in love," said first-time parents Marlow and Larry Hogue as they looked and their 6-day-old baby Chloe.

They said they prepared for nine months to be parents, but said nothing could prep them for the big moment.

"It's terrifying. Terrifying, exciting, emotional, all of the above. You can't explain it until it happens," said Larry.

With a new baby, comes a new set of questions. So, they made a list and took Chloe to Bella Bambino.

"Our whole goal is to make this whole mother-baby, bringing a new baby into a family, as successful and a positive experience as we possibly can," said Pediatrician Karen Foushee.

Bella Bambino is a holistic experience, treating both mom and baby on a physical and psychological basis. Parents only have about 36 hours before they're sent home from the hospital, left to their own devices.

"We have three different hospitals that deliver babies, so we deliver thousands of babies a year," said Katie Hughes, a registered nurse at Bella Bambino. "These moms are just lost when they go home and they don't have anybody to call."

Sally Wood is a lactation consultant at Bella Bambino and says she hopes this new community resource will lead to healthier babies and eased minds.

"Mom and baby were a couplet forever when that baby was inside, and they're not connected anymore physically, but they are one unit. And we need to take care of them that way," said Wood.

Bella Bambino says they send all appointment information to both the baby's pediatrician and the mom's OBGYN to keep all doctors on the same page.