We had a tour of the hospital yesterday afternoon along with about 9 other couples. Most of the women were obviously pregnant, with at least one of them about to pop! Only one other lady seemed to be in the early stages of pregnancy.
It was actually quite good, and I think it was helpful to be able to see the different birthing places. We were shown the birthing suite first. There were 10 rooms, each had a single hospital bed, some equipment for monitoring the baby’s heartbeat, the gas, a whole heap of medical stuff behind curtains so that you don’t really see it so much, and a large bathroom with a toilet and shower. We were told that some rooms also had normal baths in them as well, and if we wanted a room with a bath in it then we’d had to ask when we came in when in labour and they’d see what they could do.
Then we were all taken into a room where we sat for a bit of a chat about how things work in the hospital, the differences between the birthing suite and the birth centre, and she touched quickly on the different types of prenatal care that you can have. We were also told that if we left the hospital within 48 hours of giving birth, then a midwife would come to visit us at home for 5 days. Otherwise, most women stay about 4 days after a normal birth and longer if they had a cesarean.
Then we had a look at a room in the birth center. It was quite large, had a normal double bed in it with bedside tables and a lamp which did look a bit more comfortable than the room in the birthing suite, even if it did look like a hospital trying to make a room comfortable. The bathroom was large with a shower, toilet and a huge bath which you could have a water birth in if you wished (the bath in the birthing suite was for pain relief only). The birth centre only has 3 rooms and one midwife looks after them. You can only give birth there if you have a trouble free pregnancy and your labour is progressing. If anything goes wrong then you get moved next door to the birthing suite. Pain relief options in the birth centre does not include the epidural.
Then we went to look at the postnatal ward. We got there just as a group were getting ready for a class on how to bath your baby, with loads of people and their babies in a room waiting for instruction. We had a look in a private room, which had a small mattress that could be unfolded for your partner to stay on, for an extra $25 per night. The public rooms apparently had 2 beds per room and your partner can’t stay. There is also a small fridge and a bathroom in each room that is shared in the public rooms.
All in all it was good to see what our options are, but I’m still leaning towards going to the birth centre, assuming that this pregnancy goes well and I’m allowed to go there. I think Andrew found it useful to have been on the tour as well. As we walked out, Andrew said he only wanted to come to the hospital for good things this time, not for anything bad. I second the motion on that one!
