Oaklawn’s Birth Center bells are back

After more than a decade, the bells signaling that Oaklawn is sending a newborn baby and their parents home are back.

On Nov. 7, the bells rang once again after Oaklawn raised the funds for a new system thanks to last August’s annual Birdies for Babies golf outing at The Medalist. Close to 40 teams took part and the event raised almost $100,000 for Oaklawn’s Birth Center.

“The support of this event went a long way toward enhancing our Birth Center and furthering Oaklawn’s mission,” said Oaklawn Development Manager Cindy Lake. “This event contributed towards the advancement of the Birth Center, allowing over 600 mothers a year a comfortable, memorable and safe delivery experience. The generosity of our donors allows us to provide the best care possible to all the families who chose to deliver with Oaklawn. This was a record-breaking event, and we could not have achieved this without the generous support of our community.”

Lake said hearing the bells once again was a welcome sound.

“I have lived in Marshall all my life and I remember the bells ringing for the Oaklawn babies, so I was honored to be part of bringing back the bells to our community,” she said.

Tracee Hathaway from the Birth Center has been with Oaklawn since 1990, three years after the original bells sound system was installed.

“Around 2004 we had some issues with them working properly, so we reached out to the company that had installed the system,” said Hathaway. “We tried a different type of system, still utilizing the outdoor speakers and that lasted a few more years… We tried another product around 2021, but that didn’t work either. So, we again used the Verdin company that installed the original Carillon Bells in 1987. Last year I reached out to the company after finding them in a Google search and learned, amazingly, that it was the same company.”

Hathaway added that it is “very exciting”  to have the bells back.

 “People in the community have often asked us why we don’t have the bells any longer; they’d say they missed the sound of bells,” she said. “We wanted to do something special for Oaklawn’s 100^th anniversary.”

The bells start playing a melody when a newborn is ready to be sent home from the hospital and the baby and parents leave the Birth Center.

“We don’t want to wake up people through the night, so the bells won’t ring past 9 or 10 p.m.,” said Hathaway.

Hathaway added that the bells are on a timer- roughly three minutes.

“But we find we want them going a little bit longer, so that by the time the baby and parents are leaving the Birth Center and head downstairs to their car, they are still hearing the bells,” said Hathaway. “So, we play about three songs/melodies”

She added that Oaklawn is looking to “change things up” with the melodies as some have said they sound a bit old-fashioned with a few melodies dating back to the 1950s.

“We would like to program some lullabies” said Hathaway. “And the melodies will change seasonally, so expect to hear Christmas carols for the next few weeks.”