I admit, I went into the tour of Overlake with a significant bias – they don’t have CNM’s, they don’t always get the best reviews, and they just seemed unfriendly to a non-allopathic approach. I further admit, however, that my biases were not entirely met.

We got to see a labor room, and then a mom&baby room, though in the middle of our discussion in the labor room, a nurse came in to say they needed the room asap. 🙂 It was reasonably nice – the lights were adjustable (presumably during stage 1 labor, not so up-to-your-control during stage 2), the bed had lots of configurations (including being able to add a squat bar), they had birthing balls, and had telemetry on monitoring if necessary (but they do an awful lot of monitoring). But it was most definitely a hospital, with rooms that weren’t cramped but were definitely not spacious, a door in front of the tub (which was in the bathroom), and a bunch of machinery to watch you. I have to admit, the stack of twenty widescreens mounted to the wall displaying fetal monitors with two nurses behind the desk there to watch them… a little impersonal, and a little “metrics” heavy.

But they seemed open to all kinds of delivery choices (even non-medically necessary elective cesarean, which I might be of the opinion is a little too open minded), roomed mom and baby together, tried starting nursing immediately after birth, and other friendly options. They don’t limit both food and liquid after starting active labor, but do generally limit to liquids only, and definitely do limit to liquids only if induced.

So, all in all, not the place I would choose to deliver off hand, but I don’t feel worried about ending up there in an emergency transfer either.

Though, I have to admit, I felt really strange being the only woman not showing. I’m at seven weeks, and … well… don’t really look pregnant. Everyone else was at least 32 weeks. Weird!