With Masako approaching her 8th month, we wanted to see the facilities where we plan to deliver our new son. For our first child, Mason, we were with HMSA and delivered at Kapiolani on Punahou. It was a fine delivery, very nice room, great staff, no problems. :) So, after we switched health plans to Kaiser we wanted to see what theirs was like. They recently had renovated the Labor and Delivery Ward, and it shows. It’s really very nice. We joined a tour of the facilities with about six other couples. (Note: if you take the tour, be prepared to stand for a while. You may want to bring some water with you also.)

The delivery rooms look as nice and spacious as Kapiolani’s with all the various amenities. The manager of Perinatal Services, MaryEllen Michaelidis, M.S.N., gave the tour. She said that Kaiser is really trying to be known as “baby friendly”, even starting a midwives program, slated to start in September. Kaiser is working to provide almost every “nature birth” wish, and went through many options that people with “baby plans” might have.

masako-mason-0809Another difference she mentioned was that baby is with the parents almost the entire time, for as much skin-on-skin contact as possible. (While this sounds great and natural, after being in labor for 12 hours like with Mason, frankly, we were both grateful for a slight break from a screaming baby so we could catch just a couple hours of sleep. (Yes, I KNOW, “sleep BEFORE you have a child”! ;-) ))

The recovery rooms seemed to be larger than Kapiolani’s. However, looking at that room, I’m not sure how Mason and I are going to handle it. It’s about the size of our bedroom, and, having a three year old try to be calm in that space, may not be so easy. There is a large waiting room down the hall, but, when we went past it seemed pretty busy with people.

All in all, we’re both very excited to delivery at Kaiser, sometime in early October.

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