Pickles & Ice Cream might sound like the latest Minnesota State Fair craze, but it is actually a new marketing gimmick that the University of Minnesota Medical Center has launched to compete in the crowded world of maternity care.
Starting late last week, a food truck bearing the "M Health" logo started appearing outside OB-GYN and pediatric clinics in the Twin Cities area to give away free pickles and ice cream — the stereotypical food cravings of expecting mothers — and to promote a $21 million renovation of the U's Birthplace maternity ward.
"We wanted to think of a fun way to engage new moms," said Dr. Dan Landers, the medical center's director of maternal-fetal medicine. "You can't take these buildings and drive them around town."
Competition for deliveries has intensified recently: The annual number of babies born in the state has declined 6 percent since the start of the last economic recession in 2007, but the number of competing hospitals has increased. Maple Grove Hospital went from delivering five babies in 2009, its first year in business, to 4,317 in 2014 — making it the second-most-active maternity ward in the state.
Meanwhile, Allina Health found success with its Mother Baby line of holistic maternity care, which increased the number of deliveries at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and is being mimicked at Allina's United and Mercy hospitals in St. Paul and Coon Rapids, respectively.
The U Medical Center, Abbott and United have remained top hospitals for high-risk pregnancies, in part because of their proximity to pediatric hospitals with sophisticated neonatal intensive-care units. Their survival rates for premature births are among the best in the nation. But while Abbott has increased its status as the state's busiest maternity ward — it delivered nearly 8 percent of all babies in Minnesota in 2014 — the number of babies born at the U center declined from 2,543 in 2009 to 2,333 last year, according to state birth certificate data.
From flat screens to futons
Amenities such as flat-screen televisions in recovery rooms and comfortable futons for visiting family members help to entice patients, who already expect top-flight nurses and doctors, Landers said. "We needed to have facilities that reflect the level of care we are giving and not look like it is the 1980s — because we're not providing '80s medicine."
Such features are now standard in the larger, more private recovery rooms at the U's new maternity ward, which is adjacent to the Masonic Children's Hospital on the West Bank campus. So are ceiling-to-floor windows with dramatic skyline views.
