{ SPECIAL DELIVERY }
BIRTH RIGHT
Nothing can make having a baby a completely tranquil experience, but inspired design can help.
Text by Donna Rolando
Design by Mannarino Designs
Photography by Mike Van Tassell
Spa-like serenity is always a welcome retreat, yet perhaps nowhere is the calming power of design tested more than at a birthing center. Can a place where labor pains happen really have comfort at its essential spirit? That was the challenge put before Anna Maria Mannarino, owner of an eponymous Holmdel-based design firm, as she met with Clara Surowitz, M.D., ob/gyn, at Monmouth Medical Center’s cafeteria between deliveries back in 2019. The vision for the medical director’s own expected “new arrival”—Tr ū Birth Center in Lakewood—was clear that first day. “The design was meant to have the look and feel of a luxury boutique hotel or spa,” says Mannarino, with a “very specific color palette” of deep rose, Bordeaux and aubergine. Construction was completed this March with a sustainable design that stayed true to its mission, and already 31 babies have entered the world in this lap of luxury. A sense of serenity flows throughout the birth center from the reception desk, where a dogwood wallcovering basks in LED lighting, to the abstract-art-adorned family room/kitchen, where Dad and crew can unwind on a modern Italian sectional MONMOUTHHEALTHANDLIFE.COM
MON.0621.birthing center.indd 32
32
JUNE/JULY 2021
6/2/21 1:04 PM
