NEWS RELEASE – January 04, 2023
First Newborn of 2023 Arrives at Highlands ARH Hospital - January 04, 2023
January 04, 2022 – Highlands ARH Hospital welcomed its first baby of the new year born on January 4, 2023.
At 8:40 a.m., Avelyn Aurelia Barker was delivered by Dr. Jessica Branham, OB/GYN at Highlands ARH. She weighed 8 pounds and 2 ounces and was 19 inches long. Parents are Shonna and Kyle Barker. The family resides in Wittensville, Ky.
As the first baby born at Highlands ARH in 2023, the hospital gave Avelyn and her family a large, baby bathtub full of items every baby needs, including a baby monitor. Avelyn also received a gift basket provided to the New Year’s Baby by Sinking Fork Baptist Church in Hopkinsville, KY. This basket was also full of very nice baby items.
Highlands ARH Hospital offers private labor-delivery-recovery rooms with private baths in a home-like atmosphere where the focus is on a family-centered birthing experience. Once the baby is born, the hospital offers rooming in for parents and baby to enhance newborn teaching with a newborn nursery nurse available and dedicated to this service 24 hours a day.
“Location, comfort and hospitality supported by a team of highly experienced physicians and nurses are important when selecting an environment to give birth,” said Michelle Hall, RNC, OB Nurse Manager at Highlands ARH. “You can trust the Highlands ARH OB team to provide compassionate and individualized patient care”
Photo Cutline: In celebration of the first newborn of 2023, Highlands ARH Hospital gave baby Avelyn and her parents Shonna and Kyle Barker a large baby bathtub filled with baby gifts, including a baby monitor as well as a gift basket from Sinking Fork Baptist Church in Hopkinsville, Ky.
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Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH), is a not-for-profit health system operating 14 hospitals in Barbourville, Hazard, Harlan, Hyden, Martin, McDowell, Middlesboro, Paintsville, Prestonsburg, West Liberty, Whitesburg, and South Williamson in Kentucky and Beckley and Hinton in West Virginia, as well as multi-specialty physician practices, home health agencies, home medical equipment stores and retail pharmacies. ARH employs more than 6,500 people with an annual payroll and benefits of $330 million generated into our local economies. ARH also has a network of more than 600 active and courtesy medical staff members. ARH is the largest provider of care and the single largest employer in southeastern Kentucky and the third-largest private employer in southern West Virginia.