Columbia Memorial | Health Compass | Spring 2020

COLUMBIAMEMORIAL.ORG SPRING 2020 5 A forest of family trees We found lots of other families with multiple generations born at CMH. Here’s just a few of them: 1928: Richard Lewis Johnson Sr.: All six of his children were born at CMH, as well as three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren! 1961: Richard Lewis Johnson Jr., father to: 1983: Julie Johnson Roe, mother to: 2005: Corbin 2008: Kiya 2013: Blake 1985: Jessica Johnson Partridge, mother to: 2008: Wyatt 2009: Orrin 1990: Krista Johnson, mother to: 2015: Harper 1956: Richard Quashnick (St. Mary’s), father to: 1975: Julia Quashnick (St. Mary’s), mother to: 2001: Christopher Quashnick-Holloway (CMH) 1951: Robert C. Williamson, father to: 1990: Marika M. Williamson, mother to: 2012: Beau L. Moore Some other locals with multigenerational families born at CMH include: ● Kelsey Betts ● Connie Dubb ● Susie Graham ● Denise Hickman ● Cory Hughes ● Lana Lannigan This photo shows mothers and their children at CMH around 1930. Photo courtesy of the Clatsop County Historical Society. caused by an injection of morphine and scopolamine, essentially putting laboring mothers to sleep. It often produced an amnesic condition so the woman did not remember the pain of childbirth. Twilight sleep was a widely used form of pain relief in the U.S. until the 1960s. Most hospitals stopped using it after an article published in 1958 exposed the fact that mothers were indeed experiencing pain and ill effects from the drugs. During that same decade, fathers were finally allowed into the delivery rooms while mothers were laboring. In the ’70s and ’80s, they began staying for the entire birth. In 1976, CMH adopted Family-Centered Maternity Care, allowing infants to “room-in,” or remain in the room with their mother while she was awake. Both mothers and staff described this arrangement as advantageous, allowing the new mothers to bond with and care for their newborns while in the hospital. Maternity care now The present-day CMH opened in 1977. In 1988, Cope’s mother gave birth to her there, with most of her five siblings also delivered there. Cope began working at the hospital as a nurse in 2011. “My office is right outside the Family Birthing Center,” Cope says. “It’s funny thinking I was born there, and now I work right outside those doors, and I had my kids here. I spend 40 hours a week sitting right next to where I was born.” A few years ago, Cope became a mom herself, giving birth to her children in the same place where she was born. With today’s modern maternity care, she was given options to labor naturally or relieve pain with an epidural or nitrous oxide. She could take walks, use a birthing ball, or labor in a tub or shower, depending on her preference. “I think the most special part with labor and childbirth is the woman gets to experience everything, and they allowed my husband to be a part of it as much as he could,” Cope says. “They treated him so well. “I hope if I am a grandma someday, and my kids are still around here, that they get to have their kids at CMH.” Source: Most historical information provided by Chelsea Vaughn, Clatsop County Historical Society MAKE CMH PART OF YOUR FAMILY STORY. To make an appointment with any of our OB providers, call 503-738-3002 for CMH Medical Group–Seaside or 503-338-7595 for CMH Women’s Center in Astoria. Please note that during the COVID-19 pandemic, appointment times and locations may change.