L&D, same room?

[AllisonR]

I am having a homebirth. However, I am curious about the hospital setting, particularly in other countries. At hospitals here you have a private room where you labor and deliver in the same room. An hour or so after delivery you are transferred to another room, for some hours up to 5 days (depending on a lot of factors).

I have read stories and posts about women laboring in one room. Then in the middle of transition or pushing, suddenly they are put on another bed and moved to another room for the actual delivery. Seems to me this would totally disrupt the birth process, not to mention highly annoying. Is this normal? Or is this something that happened in the 60s, 70s or 80s, but not today? Do most, many, some or few hospitals do this?

[St. Margaret]

I've heard of this still happening. But what's good is that at some friendly hospitals, you labor, deliver, and stay in the same room. It's your room for your whole stay. Some places only have one or a few of these rooms and it's first come first serve (sucks!) but some are just set up that way totally

[catgirl1007]

The hospital where I delivered DD and will deliver DS has one private room for L&D. I loved that L&D were in the same room and can't imagine having to get transferred - that would have totally thrown me off. After the baby is born you get transferred to a Mother/Baby Unit and will either have a private or semi-private room, depending on what's available.

[annettemarie]

I was at one hospital where you labored, delivered, and recovered all in one room. That was nice. This last place I was at it was separate, and it stank. This time I'm birthing at home and am so looking forward to the peacefulness.

[phoebemommy]

I'm a homebirther, too, but I've always wondered who thought of this, the separate rooms for labor and delivery. Seems like a lot more work for everyone, having to decide it's time, and then telling the woman "don't push!" and maybe even holding her legs shut (I've heard of this happening) as she's wheeled down the hall to the delivery room. Like, why did they think it mattered which room the baby cames out in? If something needed to be done with special equipment, how hard was it to transfer mother or baby down the hall after birth, or go run and get the tools in question?

Of course, we're thinking logically here, and old school obstetrics was all about making things as complex and difficult as possible. Have you read Robbie Davis-Floyd? She writes about birth as rite of passage from an anthropological point of view, and has a lot of interesting explanations for things like the wheelchair ride from the door to the maternity ward and other hospital maternity rituals. I'll have to look and see if she has an explanation for the separate labor and delivery rooms.

[AmyG]

All of the hospitals I've toured have LDR rooms, meaning you labor, deliver, and recover (about 45 minutes to 2 hours after the birth) in one room. I've seen 2 hospitals where that room is also the post partum room where you spend the next few days until you go home, but that seems unnecessary to me. LDR rooms are very expensive rooms because they have so much equipment on hand. I think that childbirth ought to be affordable, and that's not going to happen when you have that many available delivery rooms.

[Azza]

Here most hospitals have separate labour and delivery rooms and then you get moved again for recovery.

I only know of one place where you labour, deliver and recover in the same room. It is a midwife run birthing center and is extremely busy.

[katt]

My sister laboured, delivered, and recovered/stayed in the same room.
All the rooms at the hospital were like that (unless you were c-sectioned)

[Turkish Kate]

When I had my daughter 13 years ago, I labored in a tiny little room (smaller than my current closet) where the clock seemed HUGE to me--right in front of me and right over the door. Then I was transferred to the "delivery room," which was actually an operating suite complete with all that comes along with a surgical setting (although thankfully not a surgeon--I had a GP). After delivery, I went to a "recovery ward," where the recovering women were separated by thin curtains and don't remember having very much interaction with the staff, although I can still recall them discussing "my case." Then I went to a completely different section of the hospital for postpartum stay, and a whole new set of completely incomepetent nurses (I make that judgment as a nurse, not as a patient).

Needless to say, I'm birthing at home this time, but I can ask around and find out what the norm is in Istanbul for hospital births.

[RockStarMom]

I labored and gave birth in the same room, then was moved to a recovery room within a couple hours of giving birth. The procedure of having a separate laboring and delivery room has become uncommon, with good reason.

[Llyra]

The hospital where I had DD was one where you stayed in the same room for all of labor and delivery, and then a few hours after birth they moved you to a new room. From what I understand, they moved you after the birth so that they could clean up the room and change the bed and all that. The rooms for after you gave birth had less equipment and stuff, and a nice cradle instead of that awful plastic wheely bassinet. It was all the same nurses, and all the rooms were private. It was actually not a bad place to be, and even in the labor rooms they kept all the fancy equipment concealed behind panels so that you didnt' have it staring you in the face all the time making you nervous.

I would like to see an L/D unit with beds big and wide enough to move around in, or to have your mate lie down with you, or to more comfortably and safely cosleep with baby after birth. That in my opinion is a change that needs to be made.
A new family should be able to all sleep together.

[JBaxter]

The hospital I had DS3 in was great nice large room that was L&D and post pard. Basiclly I checked in and stayed in the same room. It had a rocking chair nice size bathroom with a sit in shower ( great for laboring) a twin daybed for DH to stay and 2 extra chairs for vistors. It also had a room the size of the bathroom with the baby warmer/scale so the baby never left the room.
This hospital will only take the baby to the nursery for medical reasons or if the mom had a csection and then the dad is with the baby.

Our area is building a new hospital so the will improve the rooms more.

[Quagmire]

With my first DD I labored, delivered and recovered in the same room. Only C-section required a separate room.

[mahogny]

With both of mine, I labored, delivered, and had a few hours recovery in one room, then went to a different room for the rest of my hospital stay.

My sister, who lives in London, didn't even have a private room! She had to share her room with several other mothers!

[MamaRabbit]

I'm in Thailand.

The gov't hospitals use the "old style" of labor in one room, birth & recover in another, and a group room for the rest of the stay.

The private hospitals do labor and delivery in one room. Private room for rest of the stay. My 1st was born in a private hospital, the only UNICEF standard one with a natural birth suite. Waterbirth pool, etc.. Stayed in there the whole time then got my own room for the rest of the stay. Not so bad.

My 2nd one was at home.

[dawn1221]

I labored delivered and recovered (2 hours) all in one room. Plus my room after had 2 beds and DH and I roomed in with the baby for the entire time. no nursery for us. Santa Monica Hospital (in California) was great. Nurses were wonderful but OB left bad taste in my mouth (and pain in my you know what)

Dawn

[Samjm]

The hospital I birth at has a L&D room, where you stay until after baby is born, and until you're ready to move to the post-partum room. The post-partum room is like a hotel suite, with a queen size bed (for dad to stay too).

[savithny]

At the hospital I delivered in, it was one room for the L&D and the first 24 hours...

If you are staying longer, you might get to keep the room, but they will move you to a regular hospital room if they need the room for a laboring mom.

The nice labor/birth rooms all have views of the lake, plus a comfy chair that breaks down to a *flat* bed for DH/DP to sleep on.

[Lisoula]

My hospital just converted this past summer to the LDRP (Labor, deliver, recover, postpartum) style rooms. It's nice, and there's no fighting over who gets a "big" postpartum room because all of the rooms are identicle.

[FreeThinkinMama]

I labored and delivered in the same room with my dd. The recovery room was larger which was nice for rooming in.