Tips to Choose The Right Hospital For Delivery

1. Consider the Reputation of the Hospital

Check the reputation of the hospital before choosing the right one. Where can you check the importance? You can check the hospital’s official website and look for the various in-house facilities. You can also check for the reviews and feedback provided by a more in-depth search on the internet.

2. Do a Hospital Tour

Once you get a list of reputed hospitals in town, make sure you make an appointment in each of them to have a hospital tour. You need to note the following during the hospital tour.

• Number of rooms
• Hospital environment
• Amenities and Equipment
• The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
• How well is the maternity ward maintained, and how big are the rooms
• Availability of the doctors and nurses

3. Quality of Doctors and Medical Staff

The quality of the doctors and the medical staff make the life of a hospital. But how do you check the quality of the medical workers? You can –

• Ask if anyone you know has delivered in the hospital about the staff and nurse.
• Check the internet for reviews.
• Check how the nurse handles the babies, and the other staff converse with the patients during the hospital tour.

4. Distance From Home

The hospital that you choose must be easily accessible from your home. In case you have a high-risk pregnancy and need to reach the hospital quickly, you need to be right there on time. Ensure that you have the route and the mode of transport planned well ahead.

5. Budget

Budget is the most crucial aspect while choosing the hospital for your childbirth. Make sure you get the proper benefit for the amount that you spend. Most insurance companies cover all the expenses you incur for maternity. While some insurance companies may impose a limit up to which they shall cover, others may specify the services they might not cover for maternity insurance. Make sure you get the list of hospitals that your insurance company covers and get the price list during the hospital tour. Though there is an exclusive price list, the prices might vary in actuality.

5. Technologies and Birthing Techniques According to Birth Plan

Yet another essential factor to be considered is the technology and birthing techniques that the hospital offers according to your plan and ideologies. You may need to check the following.

6. High-Risk Pregnancy Facilities Available in the Hospital

If you are a candidate for a high-risk pregnancy or you want to prepare for every eventuality, look for a hospital that has the following facilities.

• Natural birthing facilities
• C section Delivery facility
• Epidural and Anaesthesia facility
• NICU
• Cord Blood Donations
• Emergency Facilities
• Lactation consultants

7. Feedback and Reviews of Other Mothers

If you have not shortlisted any hospital, you can talk to your friends or relatives who have delivered a baby and ask them for the experience and the kind of treatment they received from the hospitals. If you have already chosen your hospital and want to know more about the facility, you can search online for reviews from mothers. You can also check the community forums to check for the mothers’ experiences.

[Read : Newborn Baby Hospital Bag Checklist]

Which is the Best Place to Deliver Your Baby?

Choosing the best place to deliver your baby is an entirely personal choice. Based on your comfort zone, you can select the hospital birth, standalone birth centers, or home births. Are you new to any of them or confused about which one to choose? Worry not. Let us discuss more the various places, including the pros and cons.

1. Hospital Birth

Most women across the world prefer hospital birth over others. You may choose the Obstetrician based on the experience, reputation of the hospital, and patient reviews. The hospital birth is the best for high-risk pregnancy, especially where you prefer a vaginal birth after the C section is done previously.

The hospital birth is usually well-equipped with the latest technology, required medicines, and a well-qualified and talented team of doctors, head nurses, and other nurses to help you out whenever you need them.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of hospital birth

Pros of Hospital Birth

a) Safest Choice

It is indeed the safest choice because you do not know what complications will arise during pregnancy or at the time of labour. If you have any high-risk difficulties, the hospital birth is the safest as you get adequate care and attention from the hospital staff.

b) Operating Room is Not Far From the Labour Room

You need to remember that the vaginal birth and the C section birth do not happen in the same room. The labour room is the place where the vaginal birth happens. If you had planned vaginal delivery and during the labour, you might have to undergo a C section if there is any sudden change in plan. In that case, you just need to be shifted from the birthing room to the operating room. It is much quicker and safer in a well-equipped hospital.

c) Equipped With the Latest Technology

Most of the hospitals are equipped with the latest technology. Should your newborn require any emergency medical assistance, the hospital would be ready to help you out immediately.

d) Easy Relief From Pain

Labour and operations could give you more pain. You can always find on-staff anesthesiologists to relieve your pain through medications and epidurals.

Cons of Hospital Birth

a) Larger Hospitals Can be Intimidating and Impersonal

If you choose a larger hospital, you may find it impersonal and intimidating. It would be better to take a hospital tour beforehand to know the doctors and nurses. Most hospitals continuously strive to maintain a family-friendly environment.

b) Your Room is Not Private

Though you may choose a private room during your stay at the hospital, it might not be private. There are always people coming and going in the room, and the nurses and doctors might be hovering around your bed regularly to have a check on you.

Despite a few cons, the hospitals have gone from traditional cold room deliveries to comfortable and warm rooms.

[Read : What Are The Differences Between Vaginal And Cesarean Deliveries?]

2. Standalone Birth Centers

A standalone birth centre is a childcare facility where healthcare is provided in the wellness and midwifery model. It is not a hospital but a freestanding birthing centre. The health care systems have their principles of prevention, sensitivity, cost-effectiveness, appropriate medical intervention, and safety. While the other models also strive to provide the same features, this model is exclusive for Childbirth.

The birth centres respect and take women’s rights in choosing the preferred mode of delivery and making informed choices about the health care for self and the baby based on their own beliefs and values.

They give priority to the five Ps – People, Place, Program, Practice of Midwifery, and Part of the system.

Pros of Standalone Birth Centers

• Access to quality health care.
• Option to choose your comfort mode of Childbirth – either natural or planned.
• Privacy
• Individualised services and facilities.

Cons of Standalone Birth Centers

• You might need to transfer to and from the centre often. You might need to keep moving.
• Might not be suitable for high-risk pregnancies.

Before choosing the birth centres, do a complete recce and check the centres’ reviews and the midwives’ success rates.

3. Home Births

Delivering at home has a different setup from the hospital environment. The primary difference would be that during the labour, your health care provider might monitor your health conditions periodically rather than continuously as in the case of hospitals.

There are many reasons for which you may choose home births. A few of the reasons include the following

• To give birth without having unnecessary medical intervention such as labour induction, labour augmentation, pain medications, or fetal heart rate monitoring.
• To give birth in a more comfortable and familiar place.
• If you are dissatisfied with hospital care.
• If you don’t have access to transportation.
• Lower Cost.

Pros of Home Births

• You can have control over the experience.
• Birthing in a familiar environment.
• High chances of Vaginal Birth.
• Avoiding unnecessary medical interventions.

Cons of Home Births

• Though women who choose home birth do not have many complications, studies have proven that planned home births may lead to the risk of infant death.
• Insurance may not cover the other costs.
• There are still chances of being shifted to the hospital.
• The birthing process can be messy.

As you can see, there are multiple options a pregnant woman and her family can choose for delivery. Hospital delivery is the most popular option and we have listed top tips to choose the right hospital for your delivery. Whatever mode of delivery you choose, you need to consider several factors and analyze the pros and cons of each. Each of them has its own merits and shortcomings. Choose the one that best suits your medical conditions and birth ideology.

[Read : Assisted Vaginal Delivery Methods]

FAQ’s

1. How to Choose a Maternity Hospital in India?

You need to consider several factors before choosing a maternity hospital that suits you. You can choose a maternity hospital based on

• Type of delivery-normal, caesarean, high-risk pregnancy
• Budget
• Popularity of the hospital
• Efficiency of the doctors and staff
• Online reviews and word of mouth feedback
• Distance from your home

2. What Are the Three Primary Methods of Delivery?

Childbirth options include natural unassisted childbirth, assisted childbirth, and C-section childbirth.

3. Is Normal Delivery Very Painful?

Yes. It is. But the pain is manageable. Some hospitals and delivery centres may also provide pain-relieving techniques and medications to help you through the process and make it easy for you.

Read Also: Hospital Tour During Pregnancy – Is it necessary?