Jasmin Harris and her daughter at Temple Women & Families Hospital.
From the moment she found out she was pregnant, Jasmin Harris knew she wanted to give birth at Temple Health.
“I went to the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine,” explains the new mom, who’s now a second-year resident. “The quality of the education there made me want to deliver at Temple.”
Because Jasmin’s pregnancy was eventually deemed high-risk, she had weekly ultrasound and monitoring appointments at TUH-Main Campus during her last trimester. “I got to know the staff really well,” she remembers. “They were always so excited to tell me about how they were moving soon, and how I’d get to give birth at the new hospital.”
In fact, Jasmin was one of the first patients to deliver at Temple Women & Families: the region’s only hospital exclusively dedicated to women’s and infants’ care. “I had such a blessed experience,” she says. “From the nursing staff to the residents to the attendings, everybody was so kind and informative.”
“As a black woman, there’s a lot of apprehension going into labor, and then with having a high-risk pregnancy, there were so many things that I could have been nervous about,” she continues. “But I felt very safe giving birth there. The staff was impeccable, everybody was knowledgeable, and I was super comfortable delivering.”
Connecting Families with the Latest Technology
The best part of Jasmin’s birth experience? She now has a healthy, beautiful baby girl. This is the first granddaughter on both sides of the family, and everyone wanted to be there to support Jasmin in the delivery room.
“My entire family lives in Atlanta and New Orleans, and so many of them—my sister, my parents, my child’s grandmother, my best friend—flew up for my due date,” Jasmin says. “But there are only two people allowed in the delivery room, so we didn’t know what we were going to do.”
That’s when Jasmin’s care team suggested an innovative solution. Temple Women & Families is the region’s first hospital where patients can use their big-screen TVs to meet with specialists, receive bedside language translation services, watch prescribed educational videos, and order meals. They’re also a great way to video call friends and family—and which was a “game changer” for Jasmin.
“I was like, ‘Wait, what? This is amazing,’” she recalls. “Everyone wanted to be part of the moment, and being on the call allowed them to do that. My sister was in the room with me when I started pushing, and she dialed in the rest of the family. Everybody was cheering for me, and it was so encouraging.”
Jasmin’s friends and family had an equally positive experience. “My best friend and my daughter’s other grandmother told me, ‘It was the best,’” she remembers. “They said, ‘We could see you so clearly, and we were cheering you on, and it was so much fun.’”
The Right Choice for Care
Now at home with her newborn daughter, Jasmin can reflect on her birth experience—and how glad she is that she chose Temple Women & Families.
“If I had been at a different hospital that didn’t have that technology, what would I have done?” she wonders. “It honestly was such a blessing.”
