​FAQ

If you arrive with labor complaints but haven’t been evaluated by your doctor, you will be admitted and taken to the triage room. Your doctor or another health care provider will examine you to determine your progress in labor. An external fetal monitor may be applied to your abdomen to assess your pattern of contractions and fetal heart rate. Depending upon the findings at the time of your evaluation, you may be released to return home, asked to walk around until your labor progresses, or admitted to a birthing suite.

In the birthing suite, your nurse will assess your blood pressure, pulse, and temperature and place you on a fetal monitor. The nurse will monitor you throughout your labor and help you explore which comfort measures work best for you. An intravenous line may be placed to give you medication and fluids. You may also receive ice chips to help quench your thirst, but you cannot eat any food without your physician’s permission.

You can have up to two people, who are older than 16 years of age, with you at any given time. At The Allen Hospital, your other visitors may wait in the visitors’ lounge adjacent to the Labor and Delivery Suites. At Sloane Hospital for Women, due to space limitations, other visitors can wait in the main lobby of CHONY.

Typically, maternity patients will be hospitalized for up to 2 days postpartum for vaginal deliveries and 3 to 4 days for Cesarean deliveries.

If you have a Cesarean delivery, your birth partner can be with you as long as you receive an epidural or spinal anesthesia. If you require general anesthesia, your birth partner will be taken to the recovery room to wait for you and your baby. You will be monitored in the recovery room until the effects of anesthesia wear off. When you are ready, you will be transported to the postpartum unit.

Only still photography is allowed in the birthing suite for vaginal deliveries or the operating room for Cesarean deliveries. Videotaping is not permitted in the birthing suite or the operating room. Still photography and videotaping of the mother and baby are permitted in the mother’s room on the postpartum unit. Any videotaping or photographing of staff may only be done with that staff member’s permission.

After delivery, your obstetrician or anesthesiologist will prescribe pain relief medication for use during your postpartum stay as appropriate. Your nurse will inquire regularly about your comfort and pain level in order to assess what medication will help keep you pain free.