Do any hospitals still have separate delivery rooms?

[Diyan]

I hear LDRs (labor, delivery, recovery room) touted as an amenity of various maternity units, but I don't think I've heard a birth story from my generation that involved going to a separate delivery room for a vaginal birth. Are delivery rooms still out there? Or is LDR only useful in differentiating from LDRPs (labor, delivery, recovery, and postpartum room)?

[mwherbs]

so for complex things like breech, twins, forcepts locally they do the birth in the operating room, which is basically what the delivery room was when I gave birth in the hospital in 78 and 80

[Peony]

Some rural, small hospitals still have them. I don't know if they have finally changed it in the past 5 years, but there was one hospital 40 miles away that still did separate rooms.

[happysmileylady]

I think it's kind of like A/C or Power Steering in cars. I haven't seen a car sold without them, but they are always listed in the amenities. I am sure there are some cars without them, particularly bigger utility type vehicles.

Hospitals are probably the same way. Older hospitals that don't have the money or space for remodel, smaller hospitals that aren't really equipped for maternity might just have a "token" maternity ward with very basics. Rural hospitals where they only have maternity because they are the only hospital for miles around.

[mamabadger]

A large local hospital still has the separate rooms (assessment, labour, delivery, recovery) in one section of the hospital, and the single LDR or birthing rooms in another. Supposedly, the separate rooms are only for high risk pregnancies, but since almost half of mothers get designated "high risk" there, the delivery room gets a lot of use.

[harli]

Yes there are still hospitals that have separate delivery rooms. I live in Scranton Pa. There are 3 hospitals in the area but up until just a few years ago CMC was the main birthing hospital but the others still did some. Then within the last 3 years or so CMC stopped doing births and a different hospital took over. We now only have 1 hospital that does births, Moses Taylor Hospital. When Moses went to take over they did a huge remodel and put in separate labor/delivery/recovery rooms. .

It's really a horrible practice. First of all the labor 'rooms' was really a tiny room that had about 4 or 5 beds crammed jammed into it with curtains from the ceiling to go around the beds. In each individual 'room' there was enough space for one bed, one chair and maybe a nurse. Although the curtains kept on getting pushed open and you could sometimes see the other women laboring/being examined in the other 'rooms'. Not very private at all. I realize how bad these rooms are is just indicative of this particular hosp. but no matter what it isn't fun hearing other women laboring.

Then you go to the delivery room where it's rush rush rush rush to pop the baby out. Even though I had a great L&D and no bleeding afterward the doc felt the need to do a manual removal of the placenta immediately after delivery (he lied to me to get me to okay it). I had NO pain medication and it was the most horrendous pain I have ever felt and I got PTSD as a result. My only thought for the reason this was 'necessary' was that he wanted me out of that room, either because he wanted to go home or because the hospital needed the room (they were busy that day). I really don't think it would have happened if the delivery room would have also been my recovery room.

[XanaduMama]

My first was a hospital birth (in a 30yo hospital in urban NC), and I labored and birthed in a L/D room and was moved afterward to a different (much smaller) room on the other side of the same floor. I think all their rooms are that way. The other (university) hospital in the same town has L/D/R rooms.

[Magali]

They sure do. The hospital where I am birthing in has really nice, private, labor rooms and then a separate delivery room . I live in Canada. It is so silly. My last birth was across the country and the same thing. Mind you that time, I stayed in the same room cause the delivery room was full. But they moved me to another bed that could be raised up high so the Dr. could do her thing.

[lifeguard]

I gave birth in Costa Rica at a top notch new hospital. They had separate delivery rooms. Fortunately my doctor felt the practice was unnecessary & had fought to get his patients rights to remain in the regular rooms so I didn't actually have to go to the delivery room.

[branbran54]

I labored and delivered in one room and then went to a different room.

[Kitten]

St. Mary's in Madison WI has delivery rooms and recovery/post-partum rooms. I have no idea how soon you get moved. We had a homebirth.

[Magali]

I just wanted to add, that the delivery room in this hospital is right next door to the labor rooms. The only difference I could see is the bed with stirrups. Because we NEED to put our feet in stirrups in order to give birth right? Mind you, there also is a squat bar, so they aren't completely against other positions. All in all, I got a nice vibe from the maternity ward at this hospital. 3 labor rooms, a delivery room, and a recovery room the nurse said they would use if the labor rooms were busy after I give birth. But she also said it is priority to not keep mom's in the recovery room. It honestly doesn't bother me that much to go to a separate room. I think is pointless and just another way that hospitals try to manage birth, but at the end of the day it's not something that is putting a dark cloud over my thoughts on this birth.

[MyFullHouse]

In my (almost) 12 years of birthing in 3 different hospitals, I've never been in separate "triage"/labor/delivery rooms. Separate pp rooms, yes, but I was never moved around before the babies were born.

[mwherbs]

oh I should also say that only one big hospital here doesn't have labor triage -the rest do- some people stay in triage for hours and hours the do have birthing rooms that were intended for Labor /delivery/recovery but as soon as possible they try to move moms out of the birthing room into the postpartum unit- and they try to carry the baby off to the "nursery" then it mostly has to do with staffing and not beds/ they pay for nursery staff, the ob nurse can either go home or take up another patient- same with the postpartum area- no need for 1/1 care and they use lots of tecs in that area

[Joyster]

The first hospital I delivered at had separate delivery rooms, it was on another floor than the maternity ward. They also had a triage room. It was an older hospital and in the 5 years since has been remodeled and apparently quite gorgeous. I'm delivering there again so I'm sure just about everything has been integrated for low risk deliveries.