Last night we FINALLY got to do our tour of the maternity ward in our hospital, and it was amazing!

The first half of the class was watching a birthing video, and it was pleasantly surprising. I thought it'd be an 80's style, glorified birth - but it was fairly modern, and not particularly straight forward. The woman was originally wanting a natural, vaginal water birth with just gas & air - however the baby was thought to be posterior, and she ended up having an epidural to combat the back pain. It showed the birth, baby's first moments, delivery of the placenta, the doctor repairing a tear & recovery.

After a quick snack, we headed upstairs to the ward. It was a quiet night with no active deliveries in progress, but fairly full recovery rooms. We got to have a peep through the Special Care Nursery window and see some teeny tiny bubbas, and the Wombat Nursery, where babies have their first baths. There are six delivery suites {4 with nice, big tubs - please cross fingers that we can have one of those!} and they're pretty nicely sized. Lots of options for labouring: birthing ball, birthing stool, beanbags, and ridiculously amazing beds that move into all sorts of crazy positions. After delivery, the rooms are mostly private, and our hospital recommends a 3-4 day stay, depending on the well-being of mum and baby. It looks fantastic!

Doing the tour has made me really, really want to fast forward through March & just get to April. I'm {surprisingly} looking forward to labour, since it's going to bring me one step closer to meeting our baby girl.