Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital Achieves Birth Ready Designation

April 24, 2025

Lafayette, LA. — A testament to the hospital’s unwavering commitment to provide exceptional maternity care, the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative (LaPQC) recently designated Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital a Birth Ready facility.

The Birth Ready designation celebrates improved perinatal health results attributed to safe, patient-centered, and dignified clinical practices with better outcomes for all women who give birth in Louisiana. Previously, the LaPQC awarded Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital with its Gift designation for enhanced perinatal and neonatal health outcomes resulting from safely and consistently implementing internationally recognized breastfeeding best practices.

“Delivering exceptional healthcare in a patient- and family-focused environment is at the heart of everything we do,” said Alesha Alford, Our Lady of Lourdes Health vice president of women’s and children’s services. “Earning the Birth Ready designation is further evidence that our investment in the well-being of this community as an organization, providers and team is building a healthier today and better tomorrow for area families.”

Founded more than 40 years ago as Acadiana’s only maternity hospital, Women’s & Children’s soon expanded to provide specialized healthcare services for area women and children. Today, services include the region’s only pregnancy navigator and child life services, free prenatal classes, prenatal and postpartum dietitian support, breastfeeding support, local pediatric specialists and the area’s only Level III Surgical Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In 2023 and again in 2024 Newsweek honored the facility as one of “America’s Best Maternity Hospitals.” A consistent recipient of state and national recognitions for patient care and experience, the hospital also received an “A” hospital safety grade from The Leapfrog Group.

Our Lady of Lourdes Health launched Advancing Acadiana in 2024, a bold growth program to meet the healthcare needs of area families and ensure patients receive exceptional care in the right place, with the right resources, at the right time. The $100 million investment includes a multi-phase plan for an expanded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, complete with private family suites designed to keep loved ones close during critical moments, a modernized labor and delivery experience, a new Mother Baby unit and a transformation of the women’s medical/surgical unit.

To achieve the Birth Ready designation, Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital’s dedicated team of physicians and other healthcare professionals collaborated closely to ensure alignment with the highest standards of maternal care. Birth Ready facilities must meet specific criteria in five dimensions: participation in collaborative learning; health disparity and patient partnership; policies and procedures; structures and education; and outcome and process measures. 

For more information about Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital’s maternity care services and its Birth Ready designation, please visit LourdesRMC.com.