the hospital is absolutely sure it is safe to let you leave. If you want to discharge yourself earlier than the hospital staff think prudent, you will be required to sign a legal document absolving them of any further responsibility.
• Your wishes are always considered: Not always. Hospitals are under legal requirements to do some things, and under no obligation to do others. Your wishes, made to the morning staff, may not be conveyed to the staff in the afternoon.
• Your obstetrician will deliver the baby: The biggest ever myth! If you labour quickly, your obstetrician may not appear until well after the birth, which was already delivered by a midwife. If you are labouring slowly and your obstetrician arrives too early, you will most likely be sped up to deliver whilst she / he is there. So, take your pick – fast without, or slow (and then sped up) with.
• You’ll be able to have a nice rest before going home to begin mothering life: Hardly likely. Hospitals are noisy places that run to timetables and unless you are a fully insured private patient in a private hospital you will be sharing your room with 1 to 5 other women and their babies and their visitors.

In the Wards
   Hospital labour wards, even though more user friendly these days, still conjure up images of stainless steel trolleys with surgical instruments all laid out neat and ready. Admittedly hospitals are softening their image by putting in a few floral bedspreads and renaming the old labour theatres “Birthing Rooms” (not to be confused with Birth Centres which are away from the main labour area and run according to a different agenda). Labour wards typically have a high narrow bed, a gas mask fixed above the bed, lino flooring, small or no window, an ensuite that is only designed for showering and going to the toilet. Accesso-ries such as birthing stools, floor mats, heat packs, usually have to be requested, and if a bath is installed it is unlikely to be available for the actual birth.
   Most hospital midwives are truly sympathetic to women in labour and would like very much for them to birth as naturally as possible, but due to their station they must work within the medical guidelines of each particular hospital. Even though midwives attend to the majority of a birthing mother’s needs, labour wards are still primarily under the rule of the doctors.
   Doctors, through their training and experi-ence, are most often concerned with symptoms not causes, and of dealing with the abnormal rather than
 

  
encouraging the normal. If a woman’s labour is progressing slowly, if her blood pressure is soaring, if the baby is presenting in the so-called “wrong way”, then a doctor will work as quickly as possible with the technology and medication available to “fix” the situation. Generally there is no time or inclination on the doctor’s part to do more than that. Such things as the mother’s emotional state are not usually on the medical agenda.
   But if a woman is physically and emotionally well prepared for labour, then there is no reason why she should need any kind of medical attention – even if she is in a hospital. The woman, her support team, the attending midwives and any doctors should all aim to cooperate in this regard.

Being Led
   A first time mother, unsure about pregnancy and the birthing process, can find herself being led in mental and physical ways. Her fears about giving birth can easily be fed by professionals and friends alike. On the other hand, no amount of pretending it will “all be alright in the hands of professionals” is the truth either. In the labour ward situation it would take a very strong woman to assert her own judgement of the situation against the expertise of medical professionals. While no doctor or midwife would ever consciously wish anything but a normal, natural delivery of a baby, hospitals tend to err on the side of caution, often resulting in intervention, when waiting it out a little longer may have sufficed. A woman in a hospital labour ward may well find the readily offered “assis-tance” a welcome option after many hours of hard labour. For example, the seemingly helpful offer of a pethidine shot at the toughest part of labour “to help you relax a bit and have a rest”, can often lead to a very unhelpful chain of events such as loss of awareness, immobility, a quickening (or slowing) of labour, or birth of a drug-affected baby who then requires resuscita-tion and / or medication and separation from the mother.

After the Birth and Going Home
   Legally, you are entitled to leave a hospital as soon as you like after childbirth. Hospitals usually suggest women stay at least 4 to 6 hours in which time it is usual to be transferred to the maternity ward, but if you want to go straight home after birth you can do this. Any woman who has undergone a caesarean section must stay for at least 5 days, sometimes extending up to 7 days.