consumer

necessary.

Expectant parents have a
choice as to whether to use
the hospital’s one lat
delivery room (sometimes
called the birthing room) or
a Jar labor room.

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Mom is allowed to walk,
sit, stand or lie during her
labor and the fridge on the
floor is kept stocked with
juice for thirsty moms and
dads. ‘Occasionally, we
have a bottle of champagne
chilling,’ Brady said with a
smile.

Moms choose whether or .

not to use painkillers and
whether or not to be awake
during a caesarian section.
Dads choose whether or not
to be present during the
birth, whether it’s a natural
birth or a caesarian.

Brady credits a group
formed several years ago
called Parents for Positive
Beginnings for initiating
several of the changes to
LGH policy and for helping
taise some of the $9,500
needed for the birthing bed
used in the labor/delivery
room. And all of these
choices have evolved, says
Brady, because moms are
starting to demand more
control in the birth process.

She explains that doctors

: LAPOR/DELIVERY nurses at Lions Gate Hospital show

, off a few of the charges they have helped safely introduce to
the .world. Left to right are Leslie O'Neill with baby boy
Faughnan, Mary Hoffman with baby girl Guilins, Barbara
Henderson with baby boy Flinders and Tess Brady, head
nurse on of Labor/Delivery with baby boy Randsalu.

have been in control of the
birth process for about the
last 60 years but. moms
gradually decided they didn’t
want to go through a normal
function with someone else
in control. ;

Lynette Best, associate
director of nursing care,
agrees with Brady that the
hospital listens carefully to
the patient.

“Within the boundary of
patient safety, we try to
listen to what the consumer,
or patient, wants,” Best
said.

The maternity ward has
three sections: the case room
where mom labors and
delivers; the special care
nursery where premature
babies and sick babies are
kept; and Three West, where
new moms and babies and
expectant moms with pro-
blems stay.

LGH is a community
hospital. With 715 beds in
operation, LGH serves the
population from Second
Narrows Bridge to Pember-

2

CHOICES IN CHILD

SAFETY and choice.
Those words are the un-

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‘“‘We want mom and dad
to have the best possible
birth - facility,”
Brady, head nurse at the
LGH case room.

Brady ‘said the hospital
has changed its policies and
procedures as a result of
demand. The
hospital runs regular tours
Tuesday evenings for expec-
tant couples. They are told
the hospital. does not do
routine IV's,
episiotomies,
epidurals, But patients are
explained the reasons when
such procedures might be

ton and Squamish. About
130 to 150 babies are born
each month at the 13th and
St. Georges institution. And
with an infant mortality rate
of .6 per cent, it has one of
the best records in the coun-
try. ‘‘We're really proud of
that fact,’? Brady says.

LGH deals with all
maternity cases except moms
who go into labor before the
fetus is 32 weeks old, which
are sent to Grace Hospital.
But overcrowding at Van-
couver’s Grace Hospital
means more North Shore
preemie babies are sent to
LGH to gain weight, after
their condition has stabiliz-
ed.

Business comes in fits and
starts, says Brady. The case
room has six labor beds, one
labor/delivery room, three
delivery rooms. and one
room for ceasarian sections.

The labor/delivery room
is one area where the
hospita! has changed to meet
the consumer’s demands. It
allows mom to labor and

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deliver in the same room.
Moms traditionally labored

.in one room and were

transferred to a_ delivery
room when the baby was
ready to make his arrival.
While it looks almost like a
regular bedroom, it has, all
the equipment needed for
the safe delivery of a new
baby.

Best and Brady are hoping
for a complete renovation of
the maternity: section of
LGH within the next five
years. Tindale has expressed
a desire for private rooms
for all maternity patients
and Brady. says she would
like’ to. see the hospital
replace the labor rooms with
six labor/delivery rooms but
retain ‘one conventional
labor room and the
caesarian operating. room.

Best would like to upgrade.

the area to reflect the 80s
and not the decade the
hospital was designed for —
the late 50s, early 60s. And
all staff would like to do
away with,the small, physi-
cally limiting labor rooms as
they are now.

One choice that parents
may not be able to have at
LGH is the presence of a
sibling at the birth of the

‘ baby. .
““We've had requests to.
have kids present and. we.
tried it,’” says Brady. “‘I did
a series of six: In four.cases -
it didn’t work at all and in

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two. cases it worked very
well,’?

Brady said problems oc-
curred with children .who
could not deal with the pain
the mother. was going
through. But Brady says the
hospital encourages siblings

to see.mom and baby as

soon as the baby has arrived.

Brady - stresses the em-
phasis is on normal, natural,
safe delivery of baby. ‘‘We
deal. with each mom on an
individual basis, one hour at
atime.”

LGH has. a policy of
rooming in — moms are en-
couraged to keep baby, at
their side.

Brady says patients . also
benefit from the team ap-
proach to patient care, doc-
tors and nurses sharing ex-
perience with interns who in
turn relate the ‘newest ad-
vances in technology and
thinking

Brady, trained as a mid-
wife, has been at. LGH 13
years. She has two sons, ag-
ed 18 and 20 who were both
delivered at home, and
although she herself ‘did
home deliveries in Britain
for nine years she says she is
against home births ‘now.
Brady, with’ experience. in
hospital and home births
says the hospital offers the
safest place for a delivery
and LGH offers‘: mom and
dad the chance to make: the
choices they want.

eee