Hospital Tour...

With Phil being on strict bed rest from here on, I'll be soloing some of the upcoming events. The first of which is the hospital tour of Florida Hospital. The hospital tour was really informative and answered many different questions, some of which we didn't think about. So why the tour? Isn't Phil going to be birthing at the Birthing Cottage? Well, yes and no. I think I need to come up with a diagram or flow chart to explain our predicament...yeah that would be a great idea :) But until then, this is how it flows:

If, we went full term, which is considered 37 weeks - 40 weeks, then we will be able to deliver at the Birthing Cottage.

If, we are delivering at the Birthing Cottage and need to be transferred to a hospital, then Florid Hospital it is.

If, we are early, then we have a choice of the 3 hospitals. One of the 3 is close to where we live, but all are reasonable close. Furthest one being 15-20 minutes away.

So that's that. Now back to the tour. It was pretty good. They did some renovating and the place looks great. There is still some construction going on, but over all, it doesn't interfere with the running of the hospital.

What I didn't like. Okay, so maybe it's where I parked. Maybe there is a closer parking, but man the parking is bad! They do have valet, but let's take where I parked, and apparently where the majority of people on the tour parked. The over head walk across to the hospital from the parking garage was located on the 3rd fl. 1st and 2nd fl was valet parking, and 3rd was handicapped and few regular parking and of course the place was packed. Then the walk to get to L & D (labor and delivery) was quite a trek. I made the walk with a lady who was going to be in the same tour and she was 37 weeks pregnant and with twins!!! She was ready any minute now and there were no wheelchairs or anything. We brought up this concern on the tour and they are aware of it and made mention about the valet service and calling ahead they could have a wheelchair waiting. Is that good? Eh, I guess so. Also the recovery rooms were tiny. About half the size of a regular hospital room and more narrow. I guess we could all fit, but a narrow bed, a portable baby's crib, and a cot for dad, it there, comfortably? Doubtful, but I guess during that time, attentions would be on the baby. Oh, and throw in visitors in the room, man it would be tight. They do however, provide a suite at a first come first serve basis. It's the size of a regular room.

Over all, the staff that I saw were pretty friendly and the environment in a whole was very positive. They offer some of the freedoms of birthing that we are looking for and really stress breast feeding and bonding with the baby, if all is good, right off the bat.

So that's my take on the tour at Florida Hospital. Below are some pictures I snapped.

Peace Out Folks

Chris C

Our Hospital Tour...

Yesterday, we had our hospital tour at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies. What did we think about it? Well, I'm not going to lie, but man the place looks great. The first thing you notice is the architecture. It's very unique. The building is well lit with the use of natural light which comes through the building's many many windows and quite secured. everyone entering the building most go through a security check in. Id's are checked and scanned and a badge is given out. On the badge, it has the name of the person, date, picture, and floor or room clearance. The folks at the front desk and security area were friendly. I liked this.

And so our tour began. First stop we made was the checking area. When the moms come in, they and another person would go to this area, get checked in, and then taken to her room. While in the room, they get the mom tested and hooked up to what ever monitoring machines needed. They only allow the mom and 1 other person during this time. All the other visitors have to stay in the waiting area which is located downstairs. But the waiting area is large and beautiful. Lots of chairs and from what I saw, 2 large flat screen TVs.

Once mom is all checked in and test and all that's done, then they allow 3 people at a time to be in the room. Those 3 people are whomever the mom wants and if you have a number of people, they can rotate. The rooms are a fairly nice size. They all have large windows, full bathrooms, not shared, flat screen wall mounted TVs, the monitoring device is wireless, there is wireless Internet, and the best part, if we wanted to carry our game system to hung up to the TV, we could :). When it comes time to have the baby, then it's mom plus 3 other people in the room.

After baby is born, there is a monitoring area right there in the room where the nurses can do their testing of the baby. After about 2 hours or so, mom and baby are carried to her recovery room. The mom, baby and 1 other person will have a tag and when the baby is carried to the nursery, the mom or the other person can go along. Oh here is the other security that I liked. All the babies' bracelet's has a sensor, that if it gets too close to the emergency exits, an alarm is activated and the floor locks down. Cool huh? Once everything is cleared, then it's back to normal. Other than that, you have to pass the nurses table and all babies are checked to see if they are with the right person.

The recovery room is also nice. Once again, large windows, private bathroom, TV and DVD player with access to free DVDs. Mom can get room service for food or massages or stuff like that. The way they said, was that they didn't want it to feel like a hospital, instead more like a spa.

I think the only thing which I didn't like was the parking. The parking was a little bit of a walk, unless you had it valeted, and since this place is fairly popular, it can be crowded at times. But the $4 for parking you play, covers 24hrs.

Is this where we were going to choose to have our baby? Don't know yet. We have the choice of 2 other hospitals. We have seen one, not on a tour but was there quite a bit. It was cool.

Here are some pictures.

Going thru the front door.Walking under the waterfall.
Inside the waiting area.

Mom delivery room.

Peace Out Folks

Chris C