We started in triage. This was pretty quick (they were almost all full!) and really nothing to get excited about. It's basically just enough room for a bed and some monitors so they can check you out and see if you're really in labor.
After that, we moved into a birthing room. Liz explained the bed and all the different positions it allows, showed us the TV and DVD player (which made us realize we might need to get some movies since we recently gave all of ours away when we moved), the whirlpool tub (whose jets are removed and sterilized like surgical equipment after each use), and everything else in the room. She also showed us the monitors and explained what we should be seeing on each. Helpful things we learned from Liz in this room:
- Bring lots of your own pillows because they're hard to come by in the hospital.
- There are several options for pain relief, including narcotics and epidurals.
- Ray asked, "When is it too late to get an epidural?" Elizabeth said, "When she's crowning." That's a lot later than either of us thought it would be!
- Wolverina's monitor line should be squiggly. Straight lines are bad. (I never thought I'd prefer a squiggly line!)
Next up was the surgical rooms where we'll go if I end up having a c-section. We got to wear these very attractive hair nets while touring. I have to admit that I really, really did not like this part of the tour. While it appears to be very sterile and very good if you need surgery, I really didn't like it. It was freezing and looked kind of terrifying. I took a lot of comfort in learning (from Liz) that TMH's c-section rate is slightly lower than the national average. Also, she spent a lot of time explaining the process of a c-section in terms of getting prepped, when Ray can come into the room, how Ray would go with the baby to recovery and then I would join them, and how much time we'd spend in recovery. The room we were in had five c-sections that day, and Liz had been in two of them. That seems high, but I also think they were very busy yesterday. I observed that it was very, very quiet, and Liz said, "It's because we're busy. These doors are almost sound-proof, and all the nurses are in rooms working. It's only when we're slow that you hear people."
Then, we went past recovery (which looks pretty much exactly like triage) and up to Family Care. This is where we'll be for the two days or so after Wolverina arrives. Liz warned us that the nurses here have essentially twelve patients - six moms and six babies - so the attention we receive in this part of the hospital will be much less than what we receive in L&D. She also then explained that this means "ask for medicine as soon as you think you need some because it'll take probably 20 minutes for them to get back to you." She also suggested that we immediately request a cot or a room with a cot because the reclining sleeper chair they have for dads isn't going to work very well for Ray. The cot we saw looked pretty small, but Ray seemed to think it was pretty luxurious compared to Army-issue cots.
After about 15 more minutes where we asked questions and Liz told us everything she could think of, we headed back down to Labor and Delivery. As we left, Ray and I both agreed that taking that tour with her was something we're both glad we did. I feel extremely comfortable with Liz's wealth of information and her calm communication of facts. Ray also felt much more informed about what to expect when we arrive. Now, we just need to finish those online child birth classes...
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