What Happens at a Hospital Birth?

Arrival at the hospital

Your midwife will tell you when to page or call once you are in labour. They will assess your labour over the phone or in person. Your first in-person assessment(s) usually happens at home. Sometimes, your midwife will ask you to meet them at the hospital in a place called obstetrical triage for your first in-person assessment. Regardless of where your first in-person assessment(s) happens, you will be admitted to a birthing room once you are in active labourActive labour is when contractions are: around five minutes apart or less so strong most people can’t talk through them strong enough to open the cervix so the baby can move into the birth canal.

Labour and birth

At the hospital, your midwife will continue to closely monitor you and your baby to make sure there are no complications developing and that you and your baby are coping well. When the birth is close, a second midwife (or second attendant) In some places where there aren’t many midwives, births are attended by a midwife and a second attendant instead of a second midwife. For example, in some remote communities nurses act as the second care provider at births with midwives.¹Ontario C of M of. Second Birth Attendant Standard [Internet]. Canada: Web; 2018. ) will come to help care for you and your baby. Depending on the hospital, sometimes the second attendant is a nurse or a doctor.