Birthing Center Tour

Last week we did our tour of Mercy Fairfield Hospital and birthing center where little B will be born. It made me so excited that if I were within a few weeks of my due date I would have probably hopped up on one of the beds and said, "Induce me, let's do this now!"



In a nutshell the tour made both Ben and I super comfortable in the hospital we chose to give birth in. On the labor and delivery floor there are two sections. The postpartum section is brand new and totally remodeled as of last year. The rooms are huge with flat screen TV's, private bath, rocking chairs and of course those extremely uncomfortable looking pull-out chairs for the "coach" to sleep on. On the labor and delivery section the rooms again are huge with a full soaking tub if the mother chooses to labor in that. (I will not. I have a think about bath tubs that just gross me out. I don't even take a bath at my own house. Love swimming pools, hate baths.)



What I love about Mercy. First off, they do not even have that typical "nursery" that you think of with the big window that you look in and see all the babies lined up. At Mercy the babies never leave the mother's side. They stay in the mothers room for their entire visit from birth to being discharged. The babies first bath, the apgar testing and the pediatric check ups are all done in the mothers room. I love that! The only time the baby will leave is if a) there is an emergency, or b) he is getting circumcised. Also, the labor and delivery floor does not have visitor hours. Therefore if we had a guest that wanted to see the baby at 10:30pm there would be no problem with that. The only hours that have a slight restriction is between 1pm and 3pm everyday. That is the "quit time" on the floor where they encourage mom, baby and "coach" to rest and bond with their baby.



All in all it was a great experience and we now have an answer to that oh so popular question that everyone asks; "Are you ready?" Yes!



T, B & B