CentraState sets birth record

CentraState Medical Center employee Geraldine Yaccarine (l-r), father Juan Amador, mother Alba Avila (with baby boy), Antoinette Urciuoli, store promotions coordinator for Babies "R" Us, and daughter Jenesis Amador welcome the first baby born at the medical center, Freehold Township, in 2007.

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP - For the fourth consecutive year, CentraState Medical Center, West Main Street, has set a record for annual births, delivering 1,872 babies in 2006. This represents a 50 percent increase from 1,253 births in 2000, according to information provided by the medical center.

The new year got off to a quick start when a baby boy weighing 7 pounds 12 3/4 ounces was delivered by Dr. Rebecca Cipriano at 7:52 a.m. Jan. 1 to parents Alba Avila and Juan Amador of Freehold.

To welcome the first baby born at the hospital in 2007, CentraState and Babies "R" Us of Manalapan presented the family with gift baskets of merchandise and a gift certificate.

Since investing $3 million to expand its birthing services in 2002, Centra-State has seen a steady increase in the number of women who choose Centra-State to deliver, according to the medical center.

The expansion included a new mother-baby unit called the First Impressions Maternity Pavilion, where moms and their newborns rest in a peaceful and quiet environment.

According to Press Ganey Associates - a nationally recognized patient satisfaction measurement firm, for third quarter, 2006 - CentraState's maternity services, which include delivery nurses, lactation consultants and neonatologists on duty around-the-clock, ranked in the 94th percentile for inpatient satisfaction compared to peer hospitals in the nation.

CentraState Healthcare System is a nonprofit community health organization consisting of an acute-care hospital, three senior living centers, a health education and activities center, a family medicine residency program and a charitable foundation. It is a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Health Network and a clinical research affiliate of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.