Birthing at Community Hospital

Give birth in a comforting, spacious, and private room. At Montage Health’s Family Birth Center, you have the freedom to customize your labor and delivery experience. Enjoy the comforts of home while delivering in the safety of a birth center with a level II specialty care nursery.

Your birthing experience

You can feel at ease knowing every aspect of our labor and delivery area caters to your comfort. When you give birth, you’ll have the support and amenities you want, from private birth suites to room service.

Our facility

Expect a space and environment designed to make your experience easier. When you choose the Family Birth Center, you benefit from a facility with:

  • 100 percent private rooms
  • A comfortable space for your support person to rest
  • Cordless and waterproof fetal monitoring, so you can shower, and move around easily
  • Birthing balls, to use during your labor
  • Peanut balls, which have a curved shape, and help position your hips and pelvis to move the baby lower more easily during labor

Often you’ll have the same room throughout your stay — from labor and delivery to recovery and postpartum parent-baby care. Sometimes ”baby booms”’ happen, and when they do, Community Hospital has rooms available just down the hall. All rooms are private, all nurses are mother-baby specialists, and all lactation services are still available — all that changes is the view from your room.

Our staff

Your birth team will include nurses most of whom are trained in labor, delivery, and recovery.

Comfort measures

Your birthing room is your space. Feel free to bring comforting items from home to help you feel at ease. Some popular options include:

  • A custom birth playlist
  • Aromatherapy diffusers
  • Cozy blankets
  • Flameless candles
  • Fluffy socks
  • Massage rollers
  • Your favorite pillow

A familiar, safe environment helps you stay grounded and ease anxiety during your delivery. Have questions about preparing for your stay? Your InJoy Health Education Understanding Birth digital library includes videos and information about crafting a birth plan, packing helpful items, and using comfort measures. You can access this library after registering for delivery in MyChart.

View in Spanish

Pain management

You’ll have the freedom to choose how you want to cope with and manage your labor, whether that’s exclusively using coping methods, pain medications, or epidural anesthesia. Your InJoy Health Education digital library reviews all treatment options available at Community Hospital and can help as you start to form a delivery plan.

View in Spanish

Food options

Nourish your body during labor and recovery. You’ll have access to a patient pantry that is open at all hours and includes a refrigerator, freezer, and microwave. The Fountain Court Café has delicious grab-and-go choices, grill options, and award-winning hand-scooped milkshakes for you to choose from. You’ll be able to order nutritious meals and snacks from our menu [PDF] and have them delivered straight to your room.

After you give birth

Our routine care supports gentle birth and family bonding, including immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin bonding and delaying non-essential care until after the golden hour. We always defer to the health of the newborn to guide us.

Rooming-in

The Family Birth Center is a rooming-in facility, meaning you and your baby are together the entire time unless either of you have a medical issue. This approach is part of the reason Baby-Friendly USA labeled us a Baby Friendly® hospital.

Delayed cord clamping

Delayed cord clamping is our preferred approach. We will always defer to the health of the newborn to guide us.

Golden hour

The first hour after birth is often known as the “golden hour” because it’s such an important time for you and your baby to bond. You can rest assured our team is on your schedule. If you and your baby are healthy, you’ll have uninterrupted time to:

  • Snuggle your baby and enjoy skin-to-skin contact
  • Breastfeed your child for the first time
  • Bond with your partner or support person

I had the most wonderful birthing experience at the Family Birth Center, and plan to have another wonderful experience soon for my second. My first, my son, was born February 7, 2022, and my amazing nurse, Kelly S., was truly remarkable. She was so inviting, warm, respectful to my wishes, involved my husband in every step of care, and explained everything with gentle understanding.

— Haley C., Family Birth Center patient

My husband and I welcomed our baby daughter at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula’s Family Birth Center on May 10, 2023, after an unexpected and long induction process. From scary medical decisions to physical discomfort, and the mental and emotional roller coaster of it all — we felt so incredibly supported by our nurses and doctors.

— Nicole J., Family Birth Center patient

Deliver at Community Hospital

Register to deliver at Community Hospital’s Family Birth Center and experience the best in labor and birth care.

Call today at (831) 625-4704 or register online to plan your stay.

Plan for your stay

Preparing for your upcoming stay at the Family Birth Center? View driving directions, parking, and patient and visitor resources.

Best Place to Birth

Family Favorites award

Doula services in Monterey County

If you are birthing between October 2024 – February 2025 you may be eligible for free doula support during labor.

Apply now

Share your birth story

Baby and teddy bear

Did you give birth at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula? We'd love to hear your birth story.

Share your story