hospital tour? poll

cmb0118

How far into your pregnancy are you planning on touring the hospital and/or taking classes that are offered? The hospitals in this area all offer classes but don't have a recommended time to take them... any thoughts?

klovesd

I won't be doing a tour since I know the hospital pretty well since that's where my oldest sister delivered my 2 nieces and I spent alot of time there with her.

I'll probably wait until maybe towards the end of my 2nd trimester to start taking the classes. But maybe sooner if they're free and give out gift bags!  

purple4u

I will look into in in 2nd tri and probably do it late in 2nd tri or 3rd 

MrsG.060708

With DD, we took our classes in March and I was due in May, as were all of the other moms in the group. Our last class was held at the hospital and included a tour.

adri77

I never did the hospital tour.  I did the birthing class late....it was a Sat. all day class and I was about 36 weeks!  I was a few weeks earlier with the bfing class.  GL!

MrsG.060708

klovesd:

I won't be doing a tour since I know the hospital pretty well since that's where my oldest sister delivered my 2 nieces and I spent alot of time there with her.

I'll probably wait until maybe towards the end of my 2nd trimester to start taking the classes. But maybe sooner if they're free and give out gift bags!  

We had to pay for ours, and it didn't include any kind of gifts, just packets of information.

StefB28

Our hospital recommended signing up for any classes we wanted to take during my 5th month, then we took the classes in my 7th month. A tour of L&D was part of the "Preparing for Parenthood" class.

akopec157

I took mine very early because for me depending on what doctor I went to depended on where I would be delivering. Find out where your doctor delivers because if they only deliver at one place you may not have a choice. Lucky for me I like the doctor that delivers at a hospital thats 2.1 miles from my house!

cmb0118

so it sounds like its me being crazy again. My SIL gave the same answer. But i've never been to the hospital before and am SOOO excited I wanna go now!

Nikkoli110

Our hospital recommends their class, which includes a tour, at the start of the 7th month. 

HadleyS

klovesd:

I won't be doing a tour since I know the hospital pretty well since that's where my oldest sister delivered my 2 nieces and I spent alot of time there with her.

I'll probably wait until maybe towards the end of my 2nd trimester to start taking the classes. But maybe sooner if they're free and give out gift bags!  

Check your insurance....some insurance plans will reimburse you for classes if they aren't free.

klovesd

MrsG.060708:

klovesd:

I won't be doing a tour since I know the hospital pretty well since that's where my oldest sister delivered my 2 nieces and I spent alot of time there with her.

I'll probably wait until maybe towards the end of my 2nd trimester to start taking the classes. But maybe sooner if they're free and give out gift bags!  

We had to pay for ours, and it didn't include any kind of gifts, just packets of information.

Most of the ones I'm interested in are free. But a friend of mine went to one a few weeks ago, it was free, she won an awesome door prize, AND everyone got a really nice gift bag. So hopefully they'll be having that same class a few months from now!

Sarahbear621

I would do it at the beginning of your 3rd tri.  Towards the middle of your 3rd tri most women tend to get sick again with 1st trimester m/s symtons so i would do it before this started. 

ldswims

Our hospital has only done their class schedule for the year through July (although classes go into Aug).  Since I am going on bedrest for the entire 3rd tri, we are already booked for the last class in Jul-Aug.  Our hospital won't admit you if you haven't done the tour.  So check into that.  We could just do the tour by itself but it's included with the class we picked.

CheriCO

This time around, it's a little different for us.  In order to even schedule your first appt at the birth center, you have to go to a free orientation during which you get a tour of the entire center.  We did this 2 weeks ago.  They make you do the orientation so your first (and all) visits can be about you and not about their standard practice.  They offer classes, some of which we'll probably take (I think we have to take at least a natural birth refresher) and I'm considering doing the hypnobabies home study course.  If I do this, I'll probably buy it within the next, oh...5 weeks or so?...just so I can get a feel for what it's all about.

Last time, I don't remember ever doing a hospital tour??  Odd and I'm a bit surprised we didn't but I really don't remember doing a tour.  The midwives answered so many questions for me at my appts, so I guess it wasn't necessary to see a possible room where I might deliver.  We took Bradley classes which we started right around 27 weeks, I think.

Janimal

We did the hospital tour at the beginning of the 3rd tri.  We wanted it done before going into labor but not too close to the wire.  It was helpful so DH knew where to pull up and park, etc. on the actual day.

We took infant CPR right about the same time.  I would recommend that class to EVERYONE.  I didn't get anything out of BFing class I hadn't already read in a book, same with childbirth class.

jjswife08

We're taking the hospital tour next week - I have heard mixed reviews about L&D at this hospital so I want to see it for myself.  Bad part is that if I don't like the hospital I have to switch doctors though.  My doc's office offers classes during each trimester that are taught by members of the hospital staff so we've already taken one class and are signed up for a few more.  Ours did come with free stuff and didn't cost anything!

smilelari

Classes - I took these pretty early (started at 17 weeks) at the recommendation of the instructor.  She recommended the earlier the better so that there was time to practice the techniques and so that there was time to switch doctors if you discovered they weren't really on board with plans for a natural childbirth.  I purposefully did my class outside of the hospital because I wanted to learn what was best for me, not what the hospital wanted me to believe was best for me (and is really what's best for them).

Tour - I did this while I was in childbirth classes.  Probably 20 or so weeks?  When I was practicing relaxation techniques I wanted to have a good idea of what environment I would be in.  I took pictures so that I could refresh my memory.

October987

Hospital Tour- The last time I gave birth at this hospital was with my first child in 2005, I'm not sure if they changed anything, so I'll be taking it again.

Classes- Nope. I took them with my daughter and I thought they were completely useless for me. Everything they taught, I already knew and I've learned tons more, so at this point, I think it would be a waste of time and money, for me.

mbgreenwalt

I only had the choice of 2 hospitals through my provider.  One wouldn't allow tours due to H1N1 so we toured the other and chose them because we knew what to expect and where to go.  We toured at the beginning of my first tri.  I didn't take any classes.