The world of the maternity ward

I recently ranted about the PLETHORA of videos I was subjected to during a childbirth preparation class I attended. Well - not to paint a dismal picture of the whole experience - I thought I'd share a more thought-provoking segment from the class.

We got to tour the maternity ward at El Camino Hospital - which is where I'm planning on delivering. I'd actually been there before having visited my sister twice when she had her son and daughter there 11 and 8 years ago. Still, it seemed like a good idea - one of the topics to be covered was how to get to the maternity ward during "non-standard business hours". I.e. when you are in a panic at 2 am.

Our instructor for the class was very helpful and pretty knowledgeable. She warned us of the parking police who *will* ticket you if you leave your car in a 2 hour spot for longer than two hours. It seems as though they will make an exception for you if it is 2 am, but generally speaking, they seem to be pretty tough about enforcement.

She also mentioned that for the safety/security of the baby - only certain staff at the hospital are authorized to take the baby from you. The badges are color-coded - so you can be on the lookout and ensure only the proper folks are whisking Junior off to the nursery if needed.

But the one fact that really got me thinking was this: there are only 10 labor rooms. That means, at any given time - the maximum number of women who can be birthing their babies in that ward is 10. And knowing that some deliveries take WAY longer than others (one paddling gf just went through 31 hours of labor) - that seems like a small number. Is it just me? Or does that seem like a small number?? Well - just our luck - on the day of our tour - all 10 were occupied so we didn't get a chance to peek in and see what it looked like. Another bonus - no dramas seemed to be occurring either. That was nice.

I also noticed that we didn't see any one pacing the hallways either. And I don't mean expectant fathers. Every birthing video we saw (and remember - there were QUITE A FEW OF THEM) showed women (dutifully followed by their husbands) waddling up and down the hallway as an attempt to either 1) move their labor along or 2) as part of way to try and stay comfortable. It was weird. Where were all these 10 pregnant ladies? Tucked away I guess in the sanctity of their rooms.

And there were only 2 infants in the nursery. They looked kind of lonely.

Well - all in all - it was a nice tour - I don't remember what we're supposed to do to get to the 2 am entrance - but I'm going to assume Chris was paying attention to that. :-) We ended the evening with - guess what - our final birthing video. It's a pretty neat little world - the maternity ward. Most of us will never know what our first experience there was like, but for future trips, I would say - it's not a bad place to spend a little time.