FORT IRWIN, Calif. — Weed Army Community Hospital hosted its first Baby Expo at the hospital on March 6.
Capt. Christine Clark, a labor and delivery nurse with WACH, saw an opportunity to educate new and expecting parents in the Fort Irwin community and gathered resources from the Fort Irwin and local communities.
“A lot of the military treatment facilities already have Baby Expos,” Clark said. “It’s just something that we haven’t done here at Fort Irwin, so I figured why not, we should try it.”
Clark said she hoped the Baby Expo would especially help first-time parents who might be overwhelmed by the experience of becoming parents.
“You’re in a place where sometimes your family’s not close by and you’re bringing a new baby into the world, you might not know what to expect,” Clark said. “The whole labor and delivery process is probably more overwhelming than people realize, so I think just getting them to be able to know the people who are going to be taking care of their babies and what resources are available should they have questions beforehand, I think is really important.”
The event drew 90 attendees including first-time parents Spc. Bankole Ogunde, a soldier with Troop K, 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and his wife, Sara.
“I’m due this month so we wanted to see what [the event] was about,” Sara said.
During the event the Ogundes and other community members spoke with staff from WACH, including the Mother-Baby Unit, Women’s Health Clinic, and also had the opportunity to tour the labor and delivery rooms.
“We really liked that they let us tour the rooms,” Sara said. “It was really nice to see all the equipment they have just to make sure everything would be safe here.”
Bankole agreed.
“We feel much more positive about the whole process of having a baby and much more informed,” Bankole said.
Bankole said he would “absolutely” recommend parents attend future baby expos.
“It gives you a lot of information and you get to network and talk to people and ask questions to the staff,” he said.
