Birth Class, July 8

Went to the birth class tonight, and got a tour of the hospital. Really, it didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. It's certainly a nice birthing room, and it's nice that the hospital believes in "rooming in" with the baby and the Daddy in the same room with Mommy all night, but it's still a hospital, no matter how much they try to make it look like home. (Unless, of course, you have a warming tray and lucite crib in your house. My apologies if so.) The good thing is that it seems very quiet, appears to be very new inside and out, and does seem to have the latest in medical technology. As for the non-medical technology, they say we can even access the Internet and email from the birthing room, which sounds pretty convenient. Maybe we'll post an entry from there! It's only $9.95 a day, which is about what you'd pay for the same thing at a hotel... not a bad deal as hospital prices go, considering what they charge for other items.

The hospital said they have somewhere between 25-30 birthing rooms (they actually told us the number, but my memory fails me now) and that at any given time up to 20 of them can be occupied with new mom's and moms-to-be in labor. I think their nurse-to-patient ratio ends up being like 5:1. It sounds like it will be a good place to deliver. Assuming nature cooperates and we deliver where we're supposed to!


A birthing room at the hospital