Hospitals use Athens guitarist's lullaby to announce newborns

WARNER ROBINS - Mark Maxwell never intended to write lullabies for hospital maternity wards -- just a few soft melodies for his wife and baby. <br> <br> The classical guitarist from Athens said, ``My wife was pregnant with our first child, and I wrote most of the tunes while I was riding my mountain bike. Nobody hired me to do it. I just thought it would be cool to do.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Those lullabies turned into an album --ne of seven Maxwell has produced -- and now are used to announce births in almost 60 hospitals across the country, including at least three in Georgia. <br> <br> New parents can push a button that plays one of Maxwell&#39;s lullabies, ``First Tune,&#39;&#39; for ten seconds over the hospital public address system, heralding their child&#39;s birth. The parents then get a copy of his album to take home. <br> <br> Houston Medical Center in Warner Robins, St. Mary&#39;s Hospital in Athens and Perry Hospital offer the lullaby service, but Maxwell said many other hospitals in Florida, New York and Connecticut are playing his tunes. <br> <br> Maxwell said, ``I guess more than 150,000 albums have been given to new parents by now.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Mary Jane Kinnas, director of marketing at Houston Medical Center, said the excitement from the lullabies extends to hospital employees. <br> <br> Kinnas said, ``People working in places like intensive care and the emergency room, where there&#39;s not a lot of happy news or things to celebrate, I think it reminds them that in the middle of all this sickness and injuries that they are involved with, that there is new life coming into this world.&#39;&#39;

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