From: larrabee@cse.ucsc.edu (Tracy Larrabee)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: My tour of the hospital where I am to give birth
Date: 8 Nov 1992 20:01:35 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz (CE/CIS Boards)
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: arapaho.ucsc.edu

Yesterday my husband and I went on our tour of our hospital's birthing
center (it was a little early, but the tour is twice per month and we
won't be in town for one of next month's tours and the other conflicts
with our birthing class).  I mostly found the tour very reassuring,
but there were a few dissapointments.  I would love to have the
perspective of some old hands.

On the reassuring side, they don't do routine shaving, enemas, IV's,
or anything that requires the baby to be out of the presence of one of
the parents (they have all the basic newborn checking equipment right
in each room--including lights and oxygen).  The only restriction on
the number or timing of visitors you have during labor is your own
(although they will act as authorities to keep people out if you
communicate such a wish).  The rooms look pretty homey, they have
hide-a-bed couches to use if any of your labor attendants needs a
quick nap, the high-tech stuff is mostly out of plain sight, and there
is no other type of labor/delivery room short of surgery (for
C-sections).  They showed us the two birthing stools (which seemed
like a small number for 10 birthing rooms, but they said it is almost
never an issue); I was amazed at how low to the ground the birthing
stools were: it is a long way for me to drop and a hard thing for
someone else to get under (I am even more impressed at the stories of
the OB who gets down on his back and delivers under the birthing
stool).  They will also set up squat-support bars on the beds.  There
is no hospital rule against any sort of camera use.  The only
restrictions on what mom can eat or drink come from the attending
doctor/C.N.M, and they have a refridgerator you can put a few things
in, though they recommend a cooler.  All the stuff I have mentioned
can go out the window quickly if there is medical need, of course
(like getting rid of people in the way of medical personnel or
inserting an IV or whisking the baby off for emergency
something-or-other).  

The beds are those things that break away in the middle so that if you
have the back up high, it looks like there is only a very small ledge
for your butt after they take off the bottom part of the bed (and, my,
but that was a large area they had for collecting goop that might
appear between the laboring/delivering mom's legs!).  Are those beds
comfortable?  Is the ledge comfortable?  How likely are you to end up
with the bed broken away and the doctor sitting between your legs as
opposed to any of the other alternative positions?

They want to put an external fetal monitor on mom for the first 20
minutes, but they don't use straps: you put on what looks like a
cotton tube-top over your belly and then they slip the monitor in a
pocket in there.  I held the tube (and even put it on) and it didn't
seem very restrictive.  If all is well, they go to intermittant fetal
monitoring.  They prefer that you keep the tube on, but you can take
it off if you use the shower (more on that later) or if you just feel
like it and are willing to step into the tube again the next time you
are monitored.  If your doctor thinks you need constant monitoring but
it is OK for you to walk, they have a radio transmitter that they
attach to the external monitor so you can roam at will around the
hospital and you have no wires to worry about.  I don't know whether
to be happy that they don't insist on constant monitoring for routine
births or unhappy that they don't do the fetoscope exams.

One thing that dissapointed me was that there was only one shower for
all 10 rooms (though there is one more near by in the post-partum
area).  I've heard women talk about spending hours under that shower;
how could they do that if they were fighting time pressure with other
women who wanted to get under the shower?  All the rooms have private
toilets and two sinks (one for nurses, one for normal people), but
no showers.  There are no baths or whirpools anywhere.

They have the birthing center split into labor/delivery rooms and
postpartum rooms.  They said they used to have them mixed, but then
when one family was exhausted and just glowing with calm pleasure and
a desire to perhaps drift off to sleep, the woman next door would
start being very vocal about pushing.  They said what they do now is
move you to a postpartum room (with a double bed) about two hours
after the baby comes (this is flexible depending on what is going on).
The idea seems OK to me, but I have heard a lot of people talk about
"LDR" rooms and make a big deal about recoving in the same room.  I'm
hoping to not spend much time in postpartum anyway: you can leave 8
hours after birth if your doctors (including the ped) say it is OK,
though they said most families stay through the night after the birth.
Dad is welcome to stay with mom constantly, and the baby can stay in
the rooms.  If the baby needs to go to the nursery for some reason,
Dad can always go with him.  They said usually the level-1 nursery is
empty unless Dad is away dealing with the dog or something and Mom
wants to take a shower (free babysitting, I guess).  They also have a
big waiting area for people who want to be "there" when the baby is
born, but aren't to be in the delivery room-proper.  They talked for
quite some time about the lengths they go to to accommodate children
(though they won't supervise them--you have to bring your own adult to
watch the children).

One thing I found sad but also reassuring is the out-of-the-way cupboard
I spied near the c-section area that was labeled "bereavment supplies."
They have clothes (in many sizes), stuffed animals, and cameras for
trying to create special moments for anguished parents.  It made me
teary, but I also found it nice that they think about the needs of
people like that.  I asked the nurse who gave us our tour later (when
there were few others around), and she told me they leave everything up
to the parents: whether to stay in the birthing center or move out,
whether to spend time alone with the baby, and several other things that
I don't think I was tracking well.  She reassured me that those supplies
are not needed very often. 

They also talked about how they use only cloth diapers, they won't
send you home with formula samples unless you request it, and they
will have a nursing mother's counsel person visit you postpartum if
you like.  It mostly sounds pretty good.  

Is there something I should have asked but didn't?  Is there some feature
I might love that I haven't thought of?

I know this is long, but I thought it might be of interest to the other
people with babies arriving in the near future.  I hope all of us have
normal, uneventful, wonderful births that produce the world's most
wonderful children.
--
Tracy Larrabee		larrabee@cse.ucsc.edu
Newsgroups: misc.kids