It isn't, of course, “they” being the nurses of the labor and delivery department at Health First Cape Canaveral Hospital. But, at the first sight of a tiny, temporary resident just wheeled into their area, the women gather round her portable crib to say hello, tell the placid little girl how beautiful she is and whisper words of encouragement.

No one needs to ask why they have chosen this for their professions, or why they are here. Their faces say it all.

Although Cape's nurses are proud of their work, and even prouder of the wonders it produces, the atmosphere in which they do it requires more than a knowing nod.

The facility has been officially designated “Baby-Friendly” by two of the world's great health care giants, UNICEF and the World Health Organization. It is the only facility of its kind to receive that designation in the Southeastern United States and only one of 25 nationwide.

The reason, according to Baby-Friendly USA spokesperson Cynthia Turner-Maffei, is “for declaring its commitment to the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding.”

Being “Baby-Friendly” is so important to Cape Canaveral Hospital that its officials have emblazoned the message on the banners that greet all patients, visitors and staff as they drive to the hospital.

The fact that it always has been baby-friendly what has brought professionals like Ruthy Wilson to the hospital and kept them there. In Wilson's case, having it that way in capital letters represents a mission fulfilled.

“I am in awe of what happens here,” she says, smiling and leaning forward to lend her words more emphasis. “The magic has never been diluted for me. The sheer power in having babies is just an amazing thing for me.”

Ruthy Wilson is a nurse's nurse, a registered nurse who has served across the board from cardiac and thoracic surgery to medical-surgical care, and she speaks of all of her former specialties with deep respect and pleasure.

But Wilson knew from the beginning that she wanted to be involved with babies, and in the days when “nurse-midwife” sounded like a foreign term, or something from a history book, Wilson's intuition told her it had a very substantial future.

She trained in the field at Emory University in Atlanta, then returned to Brevard County to practice.

Her first stop was at Cape Canaveral because it was the first in the area to share her enthusiasm for nurse-midwifery, back in 1978.

“Long before `family-friendly' was the big buzzword, it was happening here,” Wilson says with clear satisfaction.

Her devotion to the hospital is based on experience, as well as a shared philosophy, she explains. She has worked “at every hospital in Brevard County except Jess Parrish, and they are all fine hospitals, but I've always come back here. I love the management, I love the philosophy and I love the atmosphere.”

That atmosphere is one that has allowed Wilson and her fellow nurses to have a huge amount of input as to the character that their department should take.

With the hospital already having been an innovator when it replaced its old delivery rooms with private rooms for labor, delivery and postpartum care, as well as programs designed to keep families informed, educated and in touch, it seemed right to stress breastfeeding.

The latter is a subject that still gives some Americans pause, Wilson admits with a chuckle. Although it is considered the norm elsewhere and usually nothing about which to be embarrassed, Americans largely gave up on breastfeeding early in the last century, opting for the more convenient bottle-and-fonnula.

Wilson, a board-certified nurse lactation consultant, figures that in this case, the American way is not the natural way, and was determined to show how well nature could work at Cape Canaveral.

She is preacher, as well as teacher, and counts off all the benefits of mother's milk, one after an-other. It is not just nutrition delivery that is important, according to Wilson.

“We are seeing families form and breastfeeding only scratches the surface of what we're really trying to accomplish,” she explains. “For example, when I see a dad who is not connecting with a baby, I say, `Do you know what your job is? Your job is to help her out. Get over there and give her a backrub while she's feeding the baby.'”

While Cape Canaveral emphasizes the importance of breast-feeding, it does not in any way denigrate bottle-feeding. Mothers-to-be simply have the opportunity to hear their choices and be educated in their proper use, Wilson stresses.

Hospitals save considerable amounts of money when they re I receive free formula from manufacturers, she explains. In order to receive the Baby-Friendly designation, Health First officials were required to refuse to accept it.

"They put babies above business,” she says. “That's why I love it here. We always put babies above business.”

She also is quick to note that the philosophy extends well past the hospital stay and well past the infancy of the children involved.

Two years ago, Wilson helped initiate “M.O.M.'s Club” (Meeting Other Mothers), which provides support, education and social time for expectant and new mothers and grandmothers. The meetings are facilitated by a registered nurse and a certified lactation consultant, as well as a nurse from the Brevard County Public Health Unit.

"They come to either be supported or to give support, and we discuss a variety of topics. We even have a foster mother who brings her child,” Wilson says.

She and her colleagues also promote childbirth education, another subject dear to the heart of the former labor and delivery nurse.

“We let them know they need to educate themselves about the process,” she says. “The current attitude is , "If I have an epidural, why should I go to childbirth education classes?'" because they think it's all about (pain and giving birth). So now it's hard to get 20 percent attendance at our classes.

“Well, they need childbirth education because it's about more than birth. It's about prenatal checkups and other health care issues and follow-up. These things used to come from the family, from the moms and grandmothers, but now we're a mobile, transient society and all these things that are part of the bigger picture are not followed through.”

As Wilson speaks, the sound of Brahms' lullaby comes over the intercom and she smiles broadly, as does everyone else in sight. The music means that another “Cape baby” the 750th of the year has successfully made his or her way into the world and the education of the family will continue in earnest.

“This was my goal for this hospital and I don't know what to say about the future, except that I am so happy we've achieved it,” she says, meaning Baby-Friendly.

“But I know I'll be here for a long time. These are people who really care about families. I don't know what else to say, except that it is magic, and I am in awe.”

Black & White photo: Registered nurses on the sixth floor of Cape Canaveral Hospital, including from left, Ruthy Wilson, Edie Godwin, Deborah Yarbrough and Tamy Williams, stop to admire 1-day-old Elizabeth Ryan. Being “Baby-Friendly” is so important to Cape Canaveral Hospital that its officials have emblazoned the message on the banners that greet all patients, visitors and staff.

"Breastfeeding is the most precious gift a mother can give her infant. When there is illness or malnutrition, it may be a lifesaving gift;

when there is poverty, it may be the only gift" Ruth Lawrence, M.D.