Boulder News

Boulder Hospital Offers Deluxe Childbirth

Childbirth the Boulder Way

By Jenny Shank, 7-03-06

The view from Foothills Hospital.

The birth of my first child in June turned out to be a very Boulder experience. In childbirth classes I attended, I learned that Boulder women tend to have very different hopes and expectations about childbirth than does the average American woman. They're more likely to opt for a drug-free childbirth and arrive at the hospital equipped with a doula or a midwife. (According to my delivery nurse, the epidural rate in Boulder is around 40 percent, whereas in some hospitals in New York, for example, it's as high as 90 percent.)

Boulder moms are less likely to have cesareans, in part because elective cesareans--which have become de riguer in some parts of the country--are not allowed at the Boulder Community Foothills Hospital, the only hospital that delivers babies in Boulder city limits. The episiotomy rate is likewise one of the lowest in the country. This hospital is also the most expensive place to have a baby in Colorado, but I wasn't complaining about costs during my stay there. Foothills Hospital is at the forefront of a national trend in which hospitals are offering luxury amenities for childbirth, perhaps to attract future business by providing good memories.

The labor and delivery and recovery rooms in the "Family Birth Center" looked more like hotel than hospital rooms, with most medical equipment hidden behind tasteful cabinets. The birthing rooms came equipped with jacuzzis mothers could use during labor and a pull-out couch for fathers to sleep on. All the recovery rooms had internet access, refrigerators, a television with a DVD player, a rocking chair, and a queen-sized bed so that the father could sleep in with the family. I didn't have much time to take advantage many of these amenities, except for the rocking chair, but they definitely made the stay more enjoyable for my husband and visitors.

The views out the windows of the rooms were spectacular--between contractions during my delivery, we watched the full moon set over the Flatirons through a huge picture window that displayed all of Boulder.

I found the staff to be excellent--the nurses were helpful and always immediately fulfilled any request I made. For some reason that I couldn't determine, most of the nurses sported an identical tiny nose ring--perhaps as a gesture of staff solidarity?

There is no nursery, except for the neonatal intensive care nursery, so all healthy babies stay with their parents at all times (unless you beg the nurses to watch them for a few hours so you can sleep). Breastfeeding was emphasized, with all of the nurses adept at coaching moms how to accomplish breastfeeding, and for those of us who still couldn't get the hang of it, there is a "Breastfeeding Club" sponsored by the hospital that meets twice a month.

My friend who gave birth in Atlanta at one of the busiest baby-producing hospitals in the country, told me she was given drugs to speed her delivery because the nurses were changing shifts, then had to have a C-Section. Even though I didn't opt for the all-out Boulder natural childbirth experience with a doula, a three-page "birth plan" and a personal massage therapist standing by, I wouldn't want to have a baby any place else.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.