Hospital to Expand for Baby Boom : Antelope Valley: The area’s largest hospital will double its maternity ward and add other facilities to handle a burgeoning birthrate.

The Antelope Valley’s population boom is manifesting itself at the area’s largest hospital, where the birthrate is more than double what the facility is designed to handle, officials said.

The board of directors of Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center has approved a $7.5-million construction project that will double the ward’s capacity and create comprehensive new delivery, recovery and nursing facilities. The project also will include adding 80 new general-purpose beds for medical and surgery patients.

The Lancaster hospital’s maternity ward was designed to handle 125 births a month but is averaging about 300 a month, officials said. They expect about 3,600 births this year. In 1986, 2,370 babies were born at the hospital.

“There has been an awful lot of growth” in the valley, said Tom Parker, a hospital administrator in charge of the construction project. “It’s mostly young families because they can afford a home out here.”

Janice Hagen, director of obstetrics at the hospital, said the maternity ward has had to close its doors to transfers from other hospitals during the busy summer months.

“Some days we’re very crowded,” she said. “Some days we’re out of labor beds and have patients laboring in the recovery room. The beds don’t get cold.”

The plan approved last week by the nonprofit hospital’s board of directors calls for expansion into the now vacant fourth and fifth floors of a recently completed tower at the hospital and to the third floor of an adjacent building. Those areas, which were not expected to be used for several years, will be ready for occupancy by the end of 1990, officials said.

The number of traditional delivery rooms will grow from three to five, in addition to eight large new rooms that will combine labor, delivery and recovery in keeping with a new trend in maternity ward design, Hagen said. Nursery space will be increased.

“We anticipate it will handle the volume of patients for the next five years,” Hagen said.

The 80 new beds for non-maternity purposes will give the hospital, already the largest in the area, 341 beds.

Construction will include all infrastructure work such as plumbing and wiring, new parking facilities and elevator additions, at a cost of almost $5 million, Parker said. The remainder of the $7.5 million will go for equipment costs and other fees. The money will be raised through bond issues.