Best Hospital to Give Birth Naturally
Which Also Encourages Breastfeeding and Rooming In

Choosing the best hospital to give birth naturally in your town and natural birth-friendly obstetrician are crucial if you want to have a natural birth at hospital.

The process of choosing hospital supportive of natural hospital birth is discussed here and tips for choosing a natural birth-friendly obstetrician is covered here.

In this part of the article, I want to focus on how to choose a hospital supportive of breastfeeding and mother-baby attachment, as well as what to ask and look for during the hospital tour.

Although you finish your homework on interviewing hospitals and have ranked each one on the basis of its supportiveness towards natural vaginal birth, you are not done yet. You still have an unfinished business to attend, that is to determine whether your first choice or best hospital to give birth is also breastfeeding-friendly, support the early mother-baby attachment and allows family to attend the birth.

These things, although has nothing to do with the natural hospital birth, is very important because when done correctly, it will help tremendously during your first few days with the baby.

Here are things to consider :

• Whether rooming-in with the baby is possible at the hospital. Rooming-in at hospital is important to get you a headstart on breastfeeding and mother-infant bonding.
  
  
• Whether the hospital is supportive of breastfeeding and whether lactation consultant is available. Determine whether the hospital routinely gives sugar water or formula to babies. Avoid the one which makes this routine compulsory if you want a headstart on breastfeeding.
  
  
• Hospital's policies on newborn handling. Ask whether it is possible to have the newborn check up performed in proximity to you. Ask whether the parents are allowed to handle the baby early and spend time with the baby without the baby being whisked away for weighing and washing. If you have objections on some newborn routine procedures (circumcission, vitamin K drop, and so forth), be sure to ask the hospital whether they will allow exceptions.
  
  
• If you are at high risk for preterm birth and other complications which can affect your baby, choose a hospital with a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

In addition, when choosing the best hospital to give birth, you may want to determine whether the hospital treats birth as a family event by asking whether family and friends can be present during labor, birth and beyond:

• Whether the hospital allows non-professional support people (family and friends) to be present, and if it allows, how many people can be accomodated during labor and birth.
  
  
• Whether the baby's siblings are allowed to be present.
  
  
• Whether there are private labor, birth and post partum rooms available and whether it is possible for your spouse/partner and other children to stay there during your stay at the hospital. In addition, you may also want to ask what the chance is of getting such a room.
  

Now that you've finished with the interviews and investigation in finding the best hospital to give birth which is also supportive of breastfeeding and family bonding, you can narrow down your choices to 2 or 3 hospitals for hospital tours.

Most hospitals offer tours of the obstetrical floor at designated times. If you are planning of giving birth at a hospital, I recommend you to take advantage of this opportunity before deciding your place of birth for these following reasons:

• To peek at the labor, birth and postpartum room. Environment where you labor plays a role in determining the effectiveness of your labor and indirecly determines whether you will finally get a natural birth you want. If you feel comfortable with your surrounding, then your labor will progress more smoothly. Since the transition from home to the hospital by itself is already quite stressful, it is a good idea to choose a hospital with comfortable labor and birth rooms. You may find that a hospital you previously thought as the best hospital to give birth, based on recommendation, phone interviews and investigation turns you off during the tour. If you are turned off by a sterile and impersonal outlook of a room, make sure you choose a hospital with a cozy labor and birth room. On this day and age, some hospitals do make an effort to make these room warm and inviting enough. In fact, some of the rooms resemble a hotel room. During the tour, ask whether it is permissible to bring items from home to make the labor room more comfortable for you, for example: CD or tape of your favourite music, something to make the room smell familiar to you, and so forth.
  
  
• To find out where to enter the hospital, where to park, where to check in and more importantly, the shortest route to get to the maternity ward. Therefore, you or your partner don't have to 'solve' all these little problems during contraction.
  
  
• To get an answer of every single questions you have. If you want to know the questions to ask when choosing the best hospital to give birth, read our article on choosing hospital supportive of natural hospital birth here.
  
  
• To find out the check in and check out procedure. You may also want to find out whether it is possible to preregister so that you don't have to deal with all the paperwork during check in.

Good luck !

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Related articles

Is natural birth worth it
The truth of hospital birth
How to choose an obstetrician supportive of natural birth
Tips on how to maximize the chance of having natural childbirth at any birth setting
How to prepare for natural child birth
Tips for having a natural birth at hospital
Tips for preparing for giving birth at home

Other birthing options:

• Homebirth - Why giving birth at home
• Giving birth at a birthing center

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