
Join us for a rare inside peek at a labor-and-delivery room. Have a good look now—chances are you won’t notice much once you’re in labor.
By Emily Bloch
Photographs by Lisa Franchot
Special thanks to Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles
Start to finish, here’s what it looks like…

The nurses at the registration desk will likely welcome you with warm smiles, no matter how you look when you get off the elevator. Most hospitals will offer a “pre-admission” option, allowing you go in to fill out paperwork a few weeks before your due date, to avoid a bunch of scribbled signatures done in triage.






This nifty baby scale even blows warm air, so baby doesn’t get chilly at her first weigh-in.


At “Good Sam,” brand-new babies are placed on their moms’ chests for skin-to-skin bonding. But if a baby needs more help getting warm or enough oxygen, the staff will quickly shuttle the infant to this resuscitation warmer. This machine gets a baby’s temperature back up where it needs to be, and it has all of the equipment necessary to resuscitate a baby struggling to breathe.


Doesn’t this look like the perfect rocking chair for a dad to sit and hold his new baby?

Labor-and-delivery rooms most often have a private bathroom, and, in this case, it comes with a stall shower. Some moms opt for a shower or bath to ease labor pains.




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