Last week Dan and I took the tour of The Birth Place at the hospital. I was nervous. Everything I have read about, heard about, and seen about hospitals has been all negative. I was ready for a fight, armed with a thousand questions. If you’ve ever seen the Business of Being Born or read Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery or Guide to Childbirth, you know what I am talking about.
The tour was super busy, there were probably 15 couples. Let’s just say, I needed this tour to settle my nerves and I was pleasantly surprised, so was Dan. First they took us to the Labor and Delivery rooms on the west side of the floor. The rooms are nice and private. There are no machines out in the open, it looks like a hotel room. The monitoring computers, IVs, and oxygen are all hidden in a giant armoire around the bed. The floors are hardwood, there is a couch that folds out to a bed and also a rocking chair. The bathrooms are private with a shower, jetted jacuzzi tub and toilet. There is also a TV with cable, DVD player and free WI FI internet. The bed breaks down to either push on your back or to use a squat bar. I am leaning towards the squat bar method, but we’ll see. Then once the baby is born they promote placing her right on my chest to bond immediately and start nursing right away. They believe in family oriented labor and delivery and promote rooming in – which means there is a bassinet that is left directly in the room so the baby never goes to a ‘nursery’. The ‘nursery’ is for high risk infants that need special treatment or care.
Once the labor and delivery are over, everyone rests, relaxes, the nurses will take the Apgar test of the baby, weigh her, clean her, swaddle her and then we will all be moved to the east side of the birthing floor to recover on our own private room. I was also pleasantly surprised we can request early check out if everything goes well. There is a complimentary massage the next day. The floors smelled fine, not really like a hospital, thank god. The lights were very dim and there was no rushing around even though they said they were busy, didn’t look like it. They also advised that there are birth balls and options for laboring like positioning, walking, tub, shower, etc. Since I am going natural, I don’t have to be monitored full time like a woman getting an epidural. I will only have to be checked every 30 minutes, unless something takes a turn for the worst. I will have the freedom to move around.
It was a good visit. They talked a lot about what to expect, how to check in, pre-register, how to order food, and everything about the rooms. It makes me less nervous, but it’s still a hospital.
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Wow, It sounds like a very progressive hospital. Child birthing must be pretty competitive between hospitals in your area to have so many extras offered. That's great! Be a little weary of the massage. You may find that a couple times after labor is over the nurse will massage your uterus. It is supposed to help the uterus contract and to control bleeding (I had some problems with that!) But let me tell you it was nothing like any massage I have ever had! Very uncomfortable and I say uncomfortable because I had just spit a baby out of myself and that was painful! Hopefully it is a "real" massage! Did they provide you with a list of the things they provide you? That way you know what you need to bring and what you can leave at home. I had a great list that I made for some friends of mine of what you need to bring. I will see if I can find it and email it to you. I can remember chapstick (hospital air is very dry), witch hazel pads (hemorrhoid pads?) and you put then on top of your maxipad - very soothing). They had breastfeeding gowns at the hospital so I kept my stuff clean, at home and ready to go. Hopefully they will have those icepack pads. Those were great. My best advice though is take showers often the first couple days. It is soooo much better to pee in the shower no matter how gross that sounds. See if they can give you access to a fridge or will let you bring a little cooler to keep your favorite drinks and snacks at hand. I always wondered how I would make myself drink enough to breastfeed well. Somehow I was always thirsty and having it close by was handy. When the baby is sleeping on you the last thing you want to do is move the baby to get something to drink.That's all I can think of now. Have fun!
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