Jacksonville, Fla. – The producers of Maternity Ward, a documentary television series for The Learning Channel, have selected Shands Jacksonville as a site to film labor and deliveries for its national television show. A crew for the popular labor and delivery series is on Shands Jacksonville’s campus currently filming three one-hour episodes to air sometime later this year.
“Shands Jacksonville is a perfect location for Maternity Ward,” says Jenny Raskin, New York Times television series producer. “With a high number of births, a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and an enthusiastic and talented staff, we are confident that we will produce three terrific shows.”
A Maternity Ward crewmember also has a local connection. Videojournalist Sedika Mojadidi grew up in Jacksonville and on the Shands campus when it was known as University Medical Center, where her father practiced medicine as an obstetrician and gynecologist. She recalls the campus being very similar to when she was growing up and looks forward to her stay here on the First Coast.
A production of New York Times television, Maternity Ward is in its fifth season and is designed to give viewers a better understanding of the world of labor and delivery. Viewers meet the real people who put their minds and energy into saving lives of mothers and infants in situations where every second counts, as well as witness the struggles and joys associated with less traumatic births.