Part I: Development and Eighteen Months' Statistics

Abstract

The birthing room concept (BRC) at Phoenix Memorial includes personal involvement in birth plans; labor and delivery in the same bed; no separation of infant and family; discharge within 12 to 24 hours after the birth; unlimited sibling, family, and friend visitation; and the option of having family, friends, and children, in addition to the coach, attend the birth. In Part I, BRC development via medical and nursing channels, the physical remodeling, descriptive data on consumers, and morbidity and transfer statistics are detailed. In Part II, results of a consumer questionnaire are presented: why consumers chose the birthing room, overall consumer satisfaction, home births averted, impact of children's presence at birth, value of the Visiting Nurse Service, and changes consumers would make to enhance future births. Data for the two papers were collected during separate but overlapping time periods. No correlations were made as the data were initially collected for separate purposes. (See, also, separate abstract for each article.) Development of a birthing room concept and its implementation at Phoenix Memorial Hospital is described, and one-and-a-half years of birthing room experience is presented through a review of birthing room records. Descriptive data on 196 mothers and infants are summarized. A 21% maternal problem rate is reported, along with a 17% infant problem rate. Intrapartum in-hospital transfers out of the birthing room program occurred in 5% of the total birthing room families. The problems encountered and the reasons for the transfers are explorach.