Checking Out the Hospital

We are going to deliver at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center.  They just opened a new Women’s Health wing a few months back and we went to check it out this afternoon.  I’ve been a little wary about delivering at a hospital since I hate hospitals - too many memories.  But this place is awesome.  It feels more like a hotel than a hospital.  The rooms are gorgeous and the hallways are carpeted.  There’s none of that awful hospital smell to deal with.

The tour started in the atrium of the Women’s Center.  The L&D nurse conducting the tour talked for about 40 minutes about how to get into the unit (it’s a locked down unit for security reasons), what to bring, and what will happen when we come in to deliver.  Most of the stuff had already been covered in our childbirth class so it was mostly a review.  We then went into the L&D Unit to get a look at one of their rooms.  There are 29 rooms in the unit and all of them are LDR (labor, delivery and recovery) rooms.  That means that I will get to labor and deliver in the same room instead of laboring in one room and then being wheeled into another to deliver the baby.  The LDR rooms are gorgeous and really roomy.  They have a couch, rocking chair and bed.  The bathroom is really large and has a walk-in shower.  I was a little disappointed that there are no tubs in the labor and delivery rooms but I guess we can’t have it all.