August 2015 Moms

Hospital Tours

Our hospital allows us to tour the facility and do some pre-registration paperwork at 30 weeks. We will be going in a week or two and I was wondering if there was anything you ladies wished you'd asked about on your tour, other than the obvious stuff like where to enter if it's the middle of the night. I'm the type that always thinks of questions after the fact, so if I have some ideas before hand, maybe I'll actually remember to ask them! Thanks in advance for the advice!

Re: Hospital Tours

  • I asked if alcohol was allowed in the hospital, since we have champagne we want to celebrate with. Unfortunately, due to some rowdy families a year ago, they just banned all alcohol in the hospital. 
  • Loading the player...
  • FTM here but some things I want to ask about are parking both during regular and off hours and visitor policies (hours, number of guests allowed, etc)


  • Yes depending on the size and location of the hospital you may need to pay for parking or in the case of one of the hospitals I work at you may just need directions to all the parking! I live in CT and Danbury hospital has parking on its grounds and you do not need to pay for any parking with them. Yale New Haven hospital is super confusing and no matter where you park you must pay to park so some places are better than others. They also have valet parking which is a blanket fee.
  • Have you thought about your "birth plan" at all? It might help you guide your questions. I'm hoping for a med free birth so I had a couple of questions in the back of my head incase they didn't mention it in the tour like if I can drink fluids or have small snacks during labor and what kind of options they had for laboring such as birth balls, birth stool, etc. You might also want to ask about visiting hours/policies. Have fun at your tour! We left ours very excited.
  • WDDCHWDDCH member
    Where to park, where to go, when are visiting hours, how many people allowed in the room. (When I had my hospital births you went through the ER to be taken to L&D if after-hours.)

    Are the rooms LDR rooms or will you have to room hop? LDR stands for Labor Deliver and Recovery. Basically you stay in the same bed, in the same room, the entirety of your stay.

    Labor and/or birth in tub? Birth ball? Intermittent or continual fetal monitoring?

    When are you discharged (same day, next day, two days) if all is well?

    These will most likely be answered before you can ask. Some depend on your doctor, like laboring in the water or fetal monitoring method.
    Pregnancy Ticker
  • malonc2malonc2 member
    Some great questions above! On our tour, we also heard info about rooms. Are you going to be in your own room or share after delivery? How many visitors allowed and when? Will residents be coming in and out of your room if you are going to a teaching hospital? What kinds of things to include in your birth plan/ what specific options the hospital offers. They will most likely explain a lot before you even have to ask!
  • dkizz82dkizz82 member

    We are doing our tour this weekend so I'm going to follow this thread to see what suggestions people have.

    I plan to ask about food during labor and if I'll be able to avoid being hooked up to things while laboring so I can move around freely if I want.

    We are doing ours Monday. I am going to follow as well.
    Pregnancy Ticker
  • I have mine this Saturday! I'm planning on asking about security procedures at my hospital. Some hospitals will shut down the maternity ward if someone tries to leave with baby. Some hospitals don't allow baby to leave your room and if they do, an alarm will sound. That kind of thing :)
  • If important to you, ask about policies for donating cord blood.With my first, I had all the paperwork done but then learned donation was only possible if I delivered between certain hours on a weekday.
  • I'm about to go to mine! I'm nervous about what to ask specifically. My husband was supposed to come with me, but he's stuck at work. Ughhh
    I'm having a c-section so my main question is whether they will let me try breastfeeding in the recovery area(given that she's a-okay) or if they'll immediately take her to the nursery.
    I already have my registration forms filled out thanks to a stay I had there a month ago. So that's done.
    Any other moms with c-sections have recommendations for what to ask???
Sign In or Register to comment.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"