Week 27
Week 27 often is the benchmark that marks when babies in-utero are usually "safe." Although everyone wants the babies to make it until at least 33 weeks or more (keeping in mind that 37 weeks is full term for twins and 40 weeks for singletons), if for some reason they are born now, especially in a hospital with a Level III Newborn ICU (called a NICU - pronounced Nic-U), they have a very good chance (some hospitals will say up to 90% chance) of staying alive. Of course, they will likely stay in the NICU for a long time - perhaps months - which will run about $100,000 per child and may contribute to lifelong complications with respiration (asthma, etc). None-the-less, it is encouraging knowing that, in all likelihood, even under dire circumstances, you may still be able to keep your child/ren.
It is an appropriate time, then, to take your tour of the hospital where you plan to birth. Paul and I made that trip on Wednesday. The timing was also coincidentally appropriate as our friends Ralph and Tiffany were there having just given birth to their son, Dean, the day before. We went to visit them before our tour. Paul was amazed at how small Dean was, although Tiffany was quick to point out that he was considered big at just over 8 pounds. That's almost 4 times what our babies weigh now and will be, if we're lucky, 33% bigger than our babies at full term. Even though I look huge and they feel so big in-utero, it's amazing how little newborns really can be!
Paul and I were impressed with our hospital tour. California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) has labor and delivery rooms that are by far much larger than fancy hotel rooms. Once you are admitted, you spend your whole labor and delivery in this room. The room comes equipped with TV's, VCR/DVD players, showers, 2 bathrooms, and some even have jet bathtubs (I made a mental note to ask for room #5 - one with a jet tub - should they send me here first). The nurses can bring you balance balls or all kinds of props that are helpful during labor (you don't have to bring your own). The bed is a normal bed with stirrups that can come out during your delivery. They have bassinettes and all sorts of equipment to check the baby right there in the room and, if all goes well, the baby doesn't need to leave the room or the sight of mom & dad at all.
If you birth via planned C-section, however, you don't use those rooms - you go straight to surgery. Not as glamorous of a room, but certainly a faster process. The NICU is located just next to the surgery rooms. A happy, colorful mural, reminiscent of Beatrix Potter illustrations, covers the walls. There were about a dozen babies there in the "clean environment". No visitors but mom and dad and their parents are allowed.
Next we saw the post-partum rooms, where you go about 4 hours after birth. Almost all of these rooms are private. They are sunny, good-sized rooms with a decent pull-out bed for dad. Although the maternity ward nurses are trained to help in breastfeeding, CMPC staffs 10 lactation consultants as they are big believers in breastfeeding. The normal stay for vaginal births is 2 days and for C-sections is 4 days. Regardless on the manner of birth, the hospital treats you to a fancy in-room celebration dinner complete with white linen tablecloth, chocolate torte and rosebud service for your last night. We saw Tiffany and Ralph's dinner set up and it looked pretty darned good!
We start our repotior of birthing, breastfeeding and multiples classes this weekend. We start out with the general birthing class this Saturday. It's an all-day class. Each week until May we have some other class, but the rest are shorter in lenght.
