Phase 2 – Day of Surgery
Before you arrive at the medical center, do not eat or drink. Bring your photo ID and insurance card with you, but we encourage you to leave your personal belongings either at home or elsewhere until after your delivery when you are in your own postpartum recovery room. You and your support person should arrive at the medical center 2-3 hours before your scheduled cesarean delivery time. Because you are already in our system, you would not need to register with admitting. Check-in at The Birthplace.
The nurse at The Birthing Center will show you to a room and ask you to change into a gown. Please remember to remove your undergarments.
In preparation for your delivery, a nurse will take your blood pressure, temperature, and baby’s heart rate as well as update your clinical history by asking a few questions. The nurse will prepare your incision site with CHG wipes and will also insert an IV. You will talk to a member of our anesthesia team and the doctor performing the cesarean.
To help improve your recovery, a nurse will give you medications to decrease the acidity in your stomach and prevent nausea while you are lying down. Unexpected deliveries from other patients may influence starting times.
You will be escorted back to the operating room, or OR, when you and the team are ready.
There, your anesthesia team will place your spinal anesthesia – or epidural – which is the most common anesthesia choice for a cesarean delivery. This type of anesthesia allows you to comfortably have surgery while also being awake. The medication does not cross the placenta and should not affect your baby. While you may feel no pain, you may also still feel some pressure, especially when the baby is delivered.
Once your lower body is numb, you will lay on the OR bed. The team will wash your abdomen with an antiseptic solution. The physician will place sterile drapes on you.
A member of our team will assist your support person with a gown, mask, hat, and shoe covers to be worn in the OR. Once you are ready for surgery, a nurse will escort your support person into the OR - usually before the start of the procedure.
Your support person or partner will sit on a stool right next to your head behind the drapes.
The people in the OR include the anesthetist and anesthesiologist, your loved one at your head, the surgeon and assistant, and the OB surgical tech. The team is focused on your safety. Near the baby warmer, you will notice your labor and delivery nurse and additional people in the room for your baby including neonatal intensive care unit team members who attend all of our cesarean deliveries, as well as students and trainees from different professions.
You will not be able to see what’s happening during the procedure, but the team will regularly communicate with you and your support person, addressing your needs and questions.