Visiting our first hospital

We were able to go on a tour of one of our local hospitals last night. Luckily with our insurance and doctor we have several hospitals to choose from when the "Big Time" comes. And me, being the researching-type, has to go and check them all out before making a decision. The one we visited was Butterworth hospital and it is a huge unit in downtown Grand Rapids. We'll be checking out another hospital hopefully next week for a comparison. Check out this link for info on the hospital...and click on "on-line tour" on the page if you want the fancy-tour :-)

The pros:
Easy to get to with lots of garage parking
8 triage beds and like 32 birthing suites
Really centered on family and keeping baby with mom
One to One ratio with the nurse
Operating rooms for C-sections down the hall on same floor
Nurses seem to be really interested in following your birth plan
Balls, bars, and jet-tub available in the room
Recovery rooms and birthing suites are private
Couch in room folds out to bed for guests
Right next to the Children's hospital if something goes drastically wrong


The cons:
Very popular hospital, so very busy with people and patients: 8000 births a year.
Not much room in suite for people and visitor lounge smallish
Quite a walk from the parking garage to the birthing suites (about 10min)
Teaching hospital, so quite a few students floating around
May be asked to have a student view the delivery
No DVD player with TV
IV not mandatory, but really likely
Still looked really like a hospital room and not a comfortable room
Moved to recovery room after only 1-2 hours
Small tub, not really useful if we decide on a water birth