Other Hospital Policies
There maybe other interventions or policies that are specific to your practitioner or place of birth. Be sure to take a tour and inquire about any such policies. Knowing about these policies ahead of time can help you make changes to your plans or encourage them to make changes for you. Examples might be:
- Triage area, with limit on number of visitors
- Cesarean policies
- Rooming in/nursery policies
- Sibling Policies
- Visitation policies
More information about hospital policies.
Dealing with Interventions
While an intervention may not be what you had envisioned, remember to get informed consent. Always ask specific questions about the proposed intervention, including why it is being done, alternatives, risks, benefits, and what happens if you choose to not do anything. Satisfaction with birth is not about it going according to plan, but rather that you felt in control of the decisions being made.
What types of medications are used in labor?
Analgesia: This describes a medication that is used to alter your perception of the pain or remove the pain without causing numbness. Examples would be Nubain, Demerol, Stadol, Tylenol, etc.
Anesthesia: This describes a medication used to remove feeling. This can be a regional anesthetic like an epidural or spinal, or a local anesthetic like an injection of Lidocaine in your perineum for a repair of a laceration or episiotomy. This can also include general anesthesia which will also result in the loss of consciousness. Though use of general anesthesia for childbirth is fairly rare, it does occasionally occur in extreme cases mostly emergencies.
