How a Prenatal Tour Can Help You Prepare for Your Baby's Arrival

If you’re pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant, you’ll be taking many steps on your journey to motherhood. One important step is taking a prenatal tour of the hospital’s maternity services, which can be done early on when you're exploring your options, or as you're preparing for your baby's arrival.

Cheryl Bergamaschi is the director of Women and Infants Services at Holy Cross Germantown Hospital and is responsible for managing the maternity areas of the hospital. Here’s what Cheryl says about the prenatal tour.

When should expectant parents take a prenatal tour?

We see women at the prenatal tours during all stages of their pregnancy. We have people go on a tour prior to pregnancy as they are planning and we have some people who take the tour when they’re due to deliver in the coming days. At Holy Cross Health, we encourage expectant mothers to take the tour at least four-six weeks before their due date.

How big are the tours, and who are the tour guides?

At Holy Cross Hospital and Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, we provide small group tours in both English and Spanish at scheduled times. Our tour guides are members of our staff, some of whom are registered nurses. A complete schedule is available at HolyCrossHealth.org/prenatal-tours.

What can they expect during the tour?

We’ll walk you through areas of the hospital that you’ll be visiting during a maternity stay with us, from the lobby to the labor and delivery rooms to the maternity suites, which are all private rooms with private bathrooms. Along the way, we’ll provide a lot of important information like where to park and where to enter the hospital. We’ll cover all the amenities we provide, such as our convenient lobby café, the room service style meals we provide, and the free internet service. You'll also learn about our neonatal units, our experienced maternity staff, newborn screenings, best sleep practices for you and your baby, hospital safety and security and more.

What is the most common question that expectant moms ask?

The tour is a really great opportunity to get all your questions answered. So come prepared with any questions you have. People most often ask is about visitor guidelines. We encourage visitors to spend time with mothers and babies, which is why our private maternity suites are equipped with a comfortable sleeper sofa for your support person to spend the night. People also ask us a lot about car seats. We want parents to have their car all prepared before they come to the hospital to have their baby, so we really encourage new parents to go to their local fire station to learn how to properly install a car seat. Holy Cross Health also offers a KISS (Kids in Safety Seats) car seat rental program that covers car seat safety and free car seat rentals for up to 9 months. Breastfeeding support questions are also common, as well as the availability of various delivery options. We support labor choices including natural childbirth, vaginal birth after Cesarean section and the participation of doulas. At Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, a midwife is credentialed to deliver babies and at both hospitals several breastfeeding support classes are offered.

What's the most surprising thing that expectant parents learn?

One of the highlights is that across Holy Cross Hospital and Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, we deliver more than 10,000 babies a year. If you really think about it, that means that more mothers trust Holy Cross Health with the delivery and care of their newborns than any other health system in the state. People are also pleasantly surprised to see our modern, comfortable private rooms and the quiet peaceful setting.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell expectant parents to prepare?

Yes, we encourage expectant parents to tour the maternity centers at Holy Cross Germantown Hospital or Holy Cross Hospital. You can also download our Pregnancy Checklist, which provides information about things you need to do during each trimester of your pregnancy to help prepare for your little one’s arrival.

Holy Cross Health presents the information in this blog as a resource for our community. It is not intended to replace professional medical advice or to endorse any particular entity or service. Personal health problems should be brought to the attention of the appropriate health professionals.