Health Answers

The story is told in my family of when my great-grandmother gave birth to one of the last of her 12 children. She was making the big noon meal for her farmer husband when the contractions started.

She took the pans off the stove, went upstairs, delivered the baby, then came back down and continued preparing the meal. She was a very hardy Swede, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that story was fairly accurate.

Only 100 years ago, most babies (95%) were born at home. Today, the numbers are reversed. What used to be considered a family event has been moved to the sterile rooms of a hospital. While these changes have benefited mothers and babies in some ways, the roles of the rest of the family during birth have decreased.

Childbirth in a hospital is fairly consistent from hospital to hospital. Hospitals must conform to certain rules and regulations when they accept insurance and Medicare/Medicaid. Various agencies, like the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH) do evaluations to make sure that hospitals are following the set standards of care.

Having a new baby is exciting and can be very challenging for a family. They will have questions about what to expect in the hospital, how to take care of children at home, who can come to the birth, what must they do to protect the new baby from illness and many more.

If an expectant mother knows what to expect in the hospital, her fears and anxieties will lessen. The unknown generates greater fear than knowing what to expect.

The majority of women will choose whatever hospital her obstetrician has privileges in. If she is high risk, she may need to go to a hospital that has a neonatal intensive care onsite in case the baby needs more assistance than a hospital without one can provide.

This topic will be continued in the next post.

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