Today's hospitals

My husband and I recently took a hospital tour of one of the two possible hospitals I can deliver at. I was certainly not the most uncomfortable looking pregnant woman on the tour (a harbinger of things to come), but I was the only wheelchair bound pregnant woman! My husband pushed me around. This wheelchair was extra wide. I could have put several shopping bags on either side of the chair with me. Sheesh.

Anyway....the LDR (Labor Delivery Recovery) suites are private rooms with private bathrooms with showers, and a little nursery nook where the baby is weighed and checked, and placed under warming lights, and given their vit K shot soon after birth.  Today's women go through labor, delivery, and recovery in the same room. It has a hospital bed and all the lights and monitors needed, but it also has a pull-out chair for the father/partner.  Up to four guests can be in the room at any time.  Actually, the journey begins at another bed in triage where the woman's labor progress is initially assessed.  After around 30 minutes, the couple is moved to LDR for the remainder of the birth process. About 1.5 hours after recovery (meaning stitching and initial baby checks), the couple moves again to a different wing altogether...the Family Centered Care Unit. This unit has both semi-private or private rooms (at a surcharge).  The scary operating room lights are not in this space.  Instead, it looks like a normal hospital recovery room.  There is a little bassinet for the baby, who rooms in with the mom, and the partner again gets a pull-out chair that converts to a bed.  These rooms all seem to have windows, and the room has free WiFi.  A lactation consultant is on call, and a nurse comes to check on you. You stay in the Family Centered Care Unit for about 24 hrs before going home.

Overall, I'm impressed with the facilities. Baby birthing has apparently really changed since I was born. Now, skin-to-skin (baby/mom) contact is the norm, and rooming in is expected. The father/partner can stay with the mom for the entire process, and is encouraged to stay the whole time.  Breastfeeding is encouraged. The hospital seems to expect that women have different tolerances for pain, and are willing to offer epidurals, or go with a natural childbirth.  There are no birthing tubs, but there are showers in the LDR suites which apparently helps enormously with labor pains.

At the same time that I was glad to learn all this high tech stuff, all this information is overwhelming as it hints that things might go wrong....the big operating room lights, all the machines....but well, we'll not focus on that! Can't control it anyway!