Hospital Tour

This weekend, the hospital where I hope to deliver, was having an open house. You could tour the whole hospital, visit information booths, etc. We focused our efforts on the 4th floor where the maternity wing is located. There were a lot of different booths set up where you could get free things such as baby lotions, shampoo, etc. They were also offering free ultrasounds!! So we immediately took our number and continued to walk around as we had quite a wait. They were giving tours of the birthing suites and delivery rooms so we jumped into one of those and checked out the potential place where Ellie will be born. After we finished our tour and waited a little longer for the ultrasound, it was finally our turn! There is nothing like seeing your little baby pop up on that screen. She was just as active as she usually is. Everyone always comments on how much she is moving. I wonder what that will mean for after she's here...:) She was still adorable (in the "i'm a lot closer to human looking but still have a touch of alien" way) and is definitely still a "she". We were glad to get that confirmation!

The hospital seems fairly new and the rooms were nice. They were pretty big and had a murphy bed (a bed that folds up into the wall) for the dads to sleep on. I've mentioned before that the Dutch see childbirth as a natural thing, not a medical issue. So 40% of women here give birth at home and a large majority of the ones who give birth in the hospital, go home within a few hours, barring any complications of course. In this hospital, we are allowed to stay overnight, especially if I give birth later in the evening. As I've also talked about before, when we go home, a kraamzorg (basically like a nurses aide specifically trained to assist after a birth) will meet us at our home and immediately help with the care of the baby. This is another reason they tend to allow you to stay overnight if you've had the baby later so you don't go home and feel completely lost. Another thing we found very funny and very European were the two bottles of wine and two wine glasses that were in the room. Seems like that might just be the time that you are ready for a nice glass of wine!:)

They also have a giant bathroom that has a giant bathtub in it where you can "relax" during labor pains. The guide told us that some women end up giving birth in there (you're not really supposed to) because they get so relaxed that the baby just gets ready to come. I hope I'm so relaxed that all of a sudden the baby is just there!!:) Then we went on to look at the delivery room and there was really nothing special about it. They had an exercise ball in there to bounce around on and also this really funny looking toilet seat type stool. Apparently this is to help if you are having trouble figuring out how to push. It gives you the illusion that you are going to the bathroom so you can figure out how to push and the midwife sits on the floor and gets ready to catch the baby. I think Dan was pretty freaked out by it but honestly it seems like gravity is in your favor on that thing!! One thing we did notice is that there didn't appear to be any equipment to monitor my heart rate or blood pressure. They had a machine to monitor baby's but not the moms. I guess when you give birth at home they only measure the baby's with a doppler.

Overall I was pretty happy with the tour and feel a little more comfortable now knowing what I'll be walking into. I think we will tour another hospital just in case this one is full or something but I'm hoping to be able to give birth here. On Wednesday we see the midwife again for our 23 week checkup! I plan on asking her about my different options for pain management during labor so I can make a decision about what I want to do. This is sure to be quite an experience!!