Labor and Delivery Room

The labor room is one of the most versatile rooms in a hospital. Once you are placed in a room, this is the room that you will use for your labor and birth, including the initial hours of recovery.

The LDR is designed for nearly all births. It can handle a birth for women choosing to go unmedicated or those who wish to have an epidural. The vast majority of these rooms can also handle minor emergencies and procedures including forceps and vacuum deliveries. You would only need to leave this room if you needed to go to the operating room for a cesarean or the high potential of a cesarean (such as in the cases of twin births or a vaginal breech birth attempt).
Once the baby is born, there is equipment in the room to handle newborn care as well. While the immediate care of the newborn is best handled via skin to skin with the mother, if there were an emergency or the need for specialized equipment, the average LDR room is prepared with a warmer for the baby and life-saving resuscitation equipment. You stay in this room for the first hour or two after you give birth, then transferred to a postpartum room.