Labor and Delivery
Here at UI Health, we strive to create a safe, comfortable, and memorable experience for all mothers as they bring their child into the world. Our caring and nurturing team will work closely with you to help your overall experience be the best it can be. We make every effort to support your birth plan choices throughout your stay to ensure your baby's birth is the experience you want it to be. We highly encourage keeping family close at hand to create a home-like environment with plenty of love and support.
Our team's expertise in labor support techniques can help to improve comfort and decrease pain as you go through labor. Here at the Family Birth Place, we offer ways to ease your labor including birthing balls, squatting bars, birth stools, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, breathing techniques, relaxation techniques, massage, and music. Beyond these techniques, we offer options for pain management. Pain medications, intravenous fluids, and epidural anesthesia are readily available if needed. The OB team is here to support you throughout labor and delivery to make this life-changing experience as comfortable as possible.
Coping With Labor
We want to help you prepare for labor and the birth of your child. Discomfort in labor has a positive purpose. It is normal and there are things we can do to help you. For more information on ways we can help support you during your childbirth and other options for coping with labor view our Medications to Cope with Labor and Things You can Do to Cope with Labor materials.
At the UI Health Family Birth Place, we aim for vaginal deliveries and recommend cesarean deliveries if you or your baby's health is at risk. We are committed to supporting women who desire Vaginal Birth After Caesarean (VBAC), when appropriate. Our OB team is here to provide you excellence in family-centered, compassionate care during this special time. If needed, our high-risk multidisciplinary OB team is ready 24/7 to care for the special needs of pregnant women and their babies.
If you have these symptoms, come to the emergency room immediately:
Preterm:
- Contractions (or abdominal tightening) every 10 minutes
- Vaginal bleeding
- Watery leakage of fluid
Full-Term Labor:
- Strong contractions every 5 minutes
- Bleeding
- Leakage of watery fluid
IMPORTANT TIPS
- Know the name and dosage of the medications you are taking, as well as when the last dose was taken.
- For any emergency, please call your clinic. An attendant is on duty 24 hours a day.
- Please contact your provider if you feel your baby is not moving as much as usual.
For more information, visit:
- Obstetrics & Gynecology provides comprehensive, quality health care for women from childhood/adolescence to their reproductive years and beyond.
- The Family Medicine team provides comprehensive health care for men, women, and children of all ages.
- Our Pediatrics team provides primary and specialty care for children of all ages, from infancy into young adulthood
