The Rotunda Hospital

The entrance

I spent the typical three nights at the hospital, and each night I was in a different ward. First, I was in the public ward, where it's free. Then, a bed came available in the semi-private ward where it's $800/night. For the last night, a bed came available in a private room, where it's $1017./night. Our insurance will cover most of this cost for us, but I was really interested in the differences.

Here's some pics and observations...

Beautiful arches in the original building of the hospital, built in 1745. This wing is now the recovery ward for those with free, public insurance.

These next two photos give you a sense of space in the public ward. In my room, there were 7 beds, each enclosed by their own curtains. The only things that could fit in the space are in the photo: a rolling table they put your meals on, and the baby cart, that has some storage underneath. Oh, and I did have a little bedside table.

Note how narrow my bed is.

The recovery nurse/midwife on the left, Susannah, is listening to my birthing nurse/midwife, Katarina. I was totally impressed at how thorough the hand-off was between the delivery team and the recovery team. Katarina went over all the details of my labor and Ronan's birth.

See the rolling table at the foot of my bed? That's where they place all your food. Regardless of where that table is, it's meant for the food. Now, the first night I struggled with this. Because it was at the foot of my bed, any food or drink I needed was out of reach! It was a little difficult, I had the baby next to me, but heaven forbid I was nursing or holding Ronan, I couldn't get to my food without getting up. I didn't have a hard labor, and I was sore moving about the bed the first night. What about someone who had a more difficult labor?

In the public ward, you need to walk down the hall to use the bathroom or to shower. The bathroom did have private shower stalls where you could change. In our room, we had a television, sink, and trash.

During the night, I would ring for assistance, and I think after my third ring for something, I was told that ringing the bell was for emergencies only. If I needed something, I was to walk to the nurse's station. Good thing I had an easy delivery, I was on my own.

The semi-private room. There were four beds in this room. We had great light--I know you can't really tell here, but that's because it was early morning when I took this photo and the two huge window shades were drawn down over the windows.

My semi-private bed, a twin-size, I think.

Now, you can see there's more room. There was a mirrored wall wardrobe where I could put my overnight bag and supplies. (In the bottom drawer I kept the food stash Alan brought me: Ferrero Roche chocolates, apples, dried mangoes, and peanuts.) We could also fit the armchair nicely there. Only drawback: no more bedside table. There was a full bathroom inside our room, too. (In the public ward, you had to walk down the hall to a large bathroom that had private shower/toilet stalls.)

So, the first thing I did after I arrived in my new space was to rearrange the furniture.

Imagine my new arrangement: the rolling table moved to the side where the wardrobe is, and the baby at the foot of the bed.

On my rolling table I kept my cell phone (we didn't have any phones by our beds in either the public ward or the semi-private ward). I brought an iPod docking station to play some soft music. I kept the camera closeby there, too. Now I could use the cell phone to check the time (critical for nursing!), reach my water (also critical during nursing), and if I was holding Ronan, still manage to eat a meal. Ahhh, better!

Now, funny enough this is where I got my best sleep. The constant noise of my neighbor's babies or conversations created a kind of white noise. Ronan slept through the other babies' crying very easily. Also by now I realized that both an eye mask and earplugs were critical, so I asked Alan and my mom if they could bring them to me. I could still hear babies crying, and the mask helped me nap during the day. If ever I wondered whose baby was crying, I just lifted my mask a bit and glanced at Ronan.

In the public ward, there were several different languages being spoken among the mothers and families there. And you might think that would change in the semi-private ward, but that wasn't true. Eastern European languages were the most prominent out of the non-English speakers. Polish, Slovakian, Czech, Russian, they were spoken in all parts of the hospital.

(There was incredible diversity among the staff, too. My first two midwives were Slovakian, my night-time midwife in the public ward was Brazilian, I think. The daytime midwife in the private/semi-private ward was Irish. The overnight midwives in the private/semi-private wards were Polish and Indian. )

For my last night, I was moved just across the hallway into a private room.

You would think I'd get my best sleep there, but unfortunately, the bed was incredibly squeaky, and without that "white noise" of all the other families, each time I made a sound I felt like it was a shout right into the baby's ear. Of course, Ronan didn't really wake up, but he would jump a little.

The window in the private room faced a wall. It really didn't have the nice energy the semi-private room did, to be honest. But I didn't want to turn it down because of my little experiment with all three types of rooms.

I did have my own private bathroom, with a shower. And in this room, there was not only a wardrobe, but also a little desk that was stocked with tea, coffee, an electric kettle and milk and sugar. Everyday, they would bring some biscuits (cookies), too.

So there you have it. Three different rooms all in the same hospital.

All in all, I have to say that it really brought home how much American hospitals are "medical hotels." The staff at St. Vincent's back home really did everything for me after Connor's birth. Now, I was definitely needing more help after Connor's birth. But all the recovery rooms there are private, the nurse checked on me much more often on her rounds, and the unlimited visiting hours meant that I always had a person nearby to help me reach this, or throw away that, or to bring me water, etc.

Some things about visitors/food at the Rotunda:

• I could designate one person who could visit me from 10am-9pm daily. Security gave Alan a special pass he could show them for that.
• Grandparents could visit from 2:30-4:30pm and from 6:30-8:30pm.
• Everyone else could visit from 6:30-8:30pm on weekdays. Weekends they could visit during Granparents' hours, too.
• There's no food after your 6pm dinner. If you have late night hunger pangs, they can only give you tea and toast.
• They give you a pitcher of water and if you want refills, you go down the hall to fill it up.

At St. Vincent's back home:

• I could have unlimited visitors for unlimited hours.
• They have endless juice and water, and they give you a water bottle with a straw. If you want more, push a call but and they'll serve you refills.
• There's a stash of sandwiches at the ready. But the staff wants to be the ones to bring it to you.

All in all, I think that a combination of the two styles is best. It was nice having unlimited visitors and visiting hours, but the full-service style of American hospitals I'm sure drives up their costs. With more visitors, new moms would have more help, too. Someone else to hold the baby, comfort the baby, etc. That would have been nice during my first couple of nights in Dublin. If Ronan cried a lot, there was no one there to help out. I was exhausted.

In all fairness, I think a lot of this had to do with two things:

1. Ronan was my second-born.

2. My labor and delivery were smooth. I didn't need extra help.

I did see several women who were very well attended to because they had a c-section, or they had major complications during their birth, or they gave birth to premies, etc. The hospital staff definitely gave more time to the women who needed it more. In that respect, their priorities were spot-on.

Other clinical observations at the Rotunda:

• They offered me gas (nitrous oxide) to cope with the pain of the contractions. It has relatively no side effects, and if I wanted it, I could give it to myself for each contraction. Do they do that back home? I don't remember hearing about it...
• They have two or three different options before presenting a c-section. They have something called a Kiwi. It's an incredibly soft, small suction cup. They use it to turn a baby if it's rotated the wrong way. (I don't think they have that back home.) After that, they have a ventouse--a metal suction to help the baby out. Then they have a section as a last option.
• In between pushes towards the end, they gave me oxygen when Ronan's heartbeat dipped during a contraction. (Apparently, they have that back in the States, but no one gave me oxygen when I was pushing and pushing and pushing Connor.)
• They gave me some sort of pain injection to help deliver the placenta--which wound up being a very gentle and painless experience. I'm not sure what that was, but I plan on asking at my 6 week check-up.
• They have a district nurse come to your house to follow up and do the heel-prick test. She brought a scale, took Ronan's measurements, made sure we were healthy, and did a general postpardum check-up. It was great!

I really like the semi-private arrangement best, I think. It was a nice balance between being alone and having amenities nearby. Again, I liked the community. We all came out of our beds and watched the royal wedding together. It was great--all of us sitting there meeting each other and talking about Kate's dress. :)

In the public and semi-private rooms, you can talk to your neighbors, learn about them, ask advice (if you wanted). Or you could keep your curtains closed and keep to yourself. We don't have that choice back home--you're alone in your room. Sure, the hospital staff was there to cater to you more often, but physically speaking, you're isolated.

Well, this was a long post, but hopefully, you found it interesting. To my Irish family, if there's information I left out, please Comment and add your thoughts.

Thanks!