Fort Lewis hospital expects baby boom

TACOMA – Doctors at the Army hospital at Fort Lewis are expecting a jump in births in coming months as they count down the months that soldiers from Iraq have been home.

Beginning next month and through at least November, Madigan Army Medical Center is preparing for a 20 percent increase in the number of births — 25 to 30 more babies over the monthly average of 148.

“We’re pretty excited. There have been a lot of changes (that) are really positive for us,” said Lt. Col. Wendy Ma, Army doctor and chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Madigan.

The hospital is one of the Army’s busiest. Last fall — when several units returned home from the war — workers finished a $1.5 million renovation of seven labor and delivery rooms.

The hospital’s also adding another OB-GYN, two more nurses and increasing its staff of midwives to four, said Ma and Sharon Simon, the nurse manager in the OB-GYN section.

Like Fort Lewis, other Army posts have experienced a baby boom following soldiers’ homecomings. Fort Carson, Colo., had a nearly 50 percent increase last December and January, following the previous spring’s return of two combat brigades.

At Madigan, it seems deployments also often result in more pregnancies. There were 182 births in October 2003, just around nine months after the country was preparing for war in Iraq.