Xiaoniu 小妞

Last night we got our tour of the entire “baby” floor. We’ve been there before when Amy had James, but we got to learn a few new things about the place. The instructor also cleared up a number of concerns regarding the rooms.

It’s a well laid out place and more secure than most people think. One area has birthing rooms where you spend your time in labor and delivery. A couple hours after delivery you are moved to the post-partum rooms. If you need a Cesarean they just wheel you down to the end of the hall. They have their own OR. The last section is NICU, but we didn’t visit there. That’s where your bundle of joy goes if they need some extra attention.

After our tour we learned a third breathing technique. It is for when the woman goes into transition or just can’t take the pain of a contraction anymore. She wants us to practice all of the breathing techniques because next week we are going to have a mock birth. We get to practice everything during the entire class.

Lastly we watched another movie. This one was about three different women having different births. One just about middle of the road, another long and the last short.

The interesting news for the night which we got at the start of class was that one of the couples had their baby yesterday. Her water broke at 8:30 and they were at the hospital by 10:30. She had the baby at 2:30. Pretty quick. The father stopped by at the start of class to tell us. We stopped by to see the baby during our tour. 6lb 11oz, baby girl.

On the way out of the nursery/post-partum room area we got to see all the very newborns. One was hairy, another was not. The last one was a girl that was only a few hours old. If anything got the group into baby mode it was last night. Visiting the rooms makes it very real. Seeing the newborns makes it stick. It gives you new appreciation for the video she showed last night.

The one thing they are very careful of and for good reason is security. Before the baby leaves the birthing room they attach two bands to the baby and one to each parent. Each has a number. Then they attach a security band to the baby.

The security band allows them to track you throughout the floor. If you are near a door or elevator with the baby the doors lock. They won’t unlock until you move away. The elevators won’t work until you move away. If you try to remove the band an alarm goes off. If you try to loosen the band an alarm goes off. Very nice.