Giving birth to a child is one of the most intense, scary, and exciting things a woman can do. The moments spent in a hospital room awaiting full dilation can be stressful, and it’s up to labor and delivery teams to provide a constant stream of communication and information to expecting mothers and fathers, many of whom will spend hours waiting for the baby to make its big debut. It’s for these reasons that hospital whiteboards have become an integral part of labor and delivery rooms and birthing centers in hospitals across the country. They can not only be used as a valuable communication tool, they can also be a source of information that patients refer to while they wait for their little one to arrive.

Thanks to whiteboard customization, facilities can tailor their whiteboards based on the rooms they will be placed in. When it comes to labor and delivery patients, these are the essential information fields that have been found to be most helpful.

Care Team Information

Many members of a labor and delivery unit will be in and out of the room as the birthing process moves along. These team members can include nurses, the OBGYN, and the anesthesiologist. After birth, other the number of people coming in and out can increase as you add in lactation consultants and the pediatrician. It’s easy for expecting parents, who are likely already in a daze, to confuse team members and forget names. Providing this information on whiteboards can help patients keep track of who will be providing care for them and their newborn.

Cervix Dilation Chart

One of the major questions many patients have when in labor is about cervix dilation, particularly what it means and how it relates to delivery. Much of the time spent in a birthing center is waiting for the cervix to be completely dilated to 10 cm. Showing a graphic depicting the stages of cervical dilation, as well as recording where the expecting mother is dilated to allows patients to stay on top of how much progress they have made and how close they are getting to delivery.

Baby Information

After delivery, baby information can be recorded on the whiteboard, including the baby’s:

• Name
• Sex
• Height and weight
• Parent/s name/s
• Next feeding time
• Method of feeding (bottle or breast)
  
  

These information fields are helpful to new staff members, particularly nurses, who begin their shift and want to refer to the whiteboard for quick reminders of who they are taking care of.

Space for Questions and Other Information

New parents have plenty of questions that they may want answered, and care teams have a lot of helpful information to give. Using additional space on whiteboards to address patient questions and concerns is a better way to guarantee that information is delivered and received most effectively. It’s this extra layer of communication and care that can set a hospital or birthing center apart from others.

Need help designing a whiteboard for a labor and delivery unit? Get in touch with the healthcare communication experts at Ghent Healthcare today!